On January 14, the University Relations Division hosted a Ph.D. research student from Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Joshua Suleiman.
Mr. Suleiman who oversees Communications & Marketing at Babcock toured 15 other universities over the last four weeks.
He found AUN welcoming and well organized in terms of facilities, infrastructure, interpersonal communication, and access to university staff members.
"Everything I have seen so far shows that the university is goal-oriented, focused, and unique."
Reacting to the researcher's complimentary remarks about AUN, the VP for University Relations, Dr. Abba Tahir, said that result-oriented public relations do not come by happenstance.
Mr. Suleiman who hails from Edo State is a graduate student of Mass Communication researching on "University's corporate image and identity on student enrollment in Nigerian universities."
He was so curious to know the factors that influence the interest of both the foreign and local students to enroll in certain academic institutions over others based on the institution's corporate image and identity, having noticed the international students' low patronage of especially Nigeria's private universities.
"In fact, most of the private universities in Nigeria record very low enrollment of international students despite the availability of excellent facilities and quality of education they offer."He described the situation as very disheartening.
"That's why I have decided to travel around various universities across the country to find out what the possible solution could be from students and staff in the academic environment."
The researcher believes that a good corporate image can enhance the credibility of an institution in terms of getting recognition, partnerships, and collaboration with international bodies while a poor corporate image will do the opposite.
Therefore, this research aims to gain insights into how the corporate image and identity of Nigeria institutions can reach a high level of international acceptability where many foreign students will be willing to enroll in Nigerian private universities to study.
Other universities Mr. Suleiman had visited include the University of Benin, Western-Delta University, Imo State University, Madonna University, Rivers State University, and Kaduna State University. Others are Kogi State University, University of Ibadan, Lagos State University, University of Ilorin, Bayero University Kano, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Nigeria, and Bingham University.
Reported by Rofiat Adekunle