THE University of Alberta, Canada, has excluded Nigerian students wanting to study in the university from its English language (IELTS) requirement following a request by Mr Olumuyiwa Igbalajobi, a Nigerian postdoctoral research fellow in Canada.
According to media reports, Dr Igbalajobi, who hails from Ekiti State, South-west Nigeria, on May 22, 2022, emailed and tweeted at the university’s official Twitter handle, calling its attention to a list of select universities from Nigeria that meet the institution’s English language requirement.
The tweet reads; “I write to call your attention to a list on your graduate school page exempting applicants with credentials from ‘SELECTIVE’ universities in Nigeria from the English Language Requirement at the University of Alberta.
“The official language in Nigeria is English which automatically translates to the fact that all academic programmes from elementary to tertiary education are taught in English.”
He claimed that based on that, Nigeria should have been exempted entirely and not some select schools.
Nigerians have over the years, but most recently intensified the campaign #ReformIELTS, which calls on foreign universities to exempt Nigeria from taking English requirements tests such as International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
“I affirmatively believe that the University of Alberta attracts applicants from different backgrounds and inclusion is germane to her. It will be greatly appreciated if the current list is updated or reworded to reflect all universities in Nigeria.,” Dr Igbalajobi wrote.
In acknowledging his email, the university noted that Dr Igbalajobi’s email “surfaced an important issue of discrepancies between ELP exempted countries as listed across Canadian post-secondary institutions.”
It noted that it will work with its U15 partners to make the reference list consistent but will “in the meantime, add Nigeria to the list.”
Meanwhile, Dr Igbalajobi said he left Nigeria with just #16,000 in his bank account. After winning a scholarship from the Korean Government, he left Nigeria to start afresh abroad.
He now lives in Canada where he works with the University of British Columbia.
