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Conference Title:
The International Conference of Nigerian Students and the Launch of the Book Aid Project (BAP)
Theme:
Networking for Impact
Conference Objectives:
The intention of this initiative is to foster
- National Development: To urge Nigerian Youths Abroad to remember their fatherland in their sojourn and endeavour to contribute to national development in any capacity.
- Unity in Diaspora: Networking Nigerian Youths (students) especially to foster unity (togetherness) amongst them abroad and at home.
- Nigerian Image Abroad: To challenge them to project Nigeria Image Abroad positively in every thing they do.
- Empowerment:
- To enlighten them about investment opportunities in Nigeria in all sectors of the economy through a partnership with EDS-LBS (Enterprise Development Services/Lagos Business School) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
- To enlighten them about Job opportunities in Nigeria as well as help them secure choice jobs in Nigeria through a partnership with corporate bodies.
- To give Nigerian Youths in Diaspora a true sense of belonging even away from home
- To recognise some distinguished Nigerian International Students and award them for their outstanding achievements
- To show case the work of some distinguished Nigerian youths and International Students.
- To enable Nigerian students officially register with the Nigerian High Commission, UK and other Nigerian Embassies in other countries for documentation purposes and for easy access to them in future situations.
- To advice them especially the new students on ways of coping with the British Education and making an impact in their current environments.
Overview:
- Delegates can start arriving on the 14th of March, 2008 (Friday) and settle in
- Then the registration starts by 9 am while the programme commences by 10 am on the 15th of March, 2008 (Saturday) at the Conference Centre of the University of Hull with several speeches and addresses by distinguished and reputable speakers which will also involve a talk about Nigerian International Student Agenda (NISA), the Launch of the Book Aid Project (BAP) and a seminar series. There will also be talks about the role of the British Council in UK Education by a British Council Official.
- There is a lunch break in between the day session
- Then after the day session by about 5pm, there is a chatting/networking session with poster presentations (When delegates are registering on the website, if they have the mind to present a poster during the conference about their research, their ideas, to advertise their products, companies etc, they will have to indicate during the registration what type of poster they would like to present. They would have to send to us by email, their posters by the latest, two weeks before the conference for approval or else they would not be able to present it. The poster/networking session will end at 6pm. There will be a tea break during the poster/networking session.
- Emails will be sent to inform those whose posters have been approved.
- Then the night party starts at 8pm to end at 12midnight on the 15th of March, 2008 (Saturday) still within the conference hall.
- The night party would be a buffet style dinner of Nigeria delicacies at its best.
- During the Party (Dinner), there would be an award ceremony to recognise the achievements of outstanding Nigerian International students that have excelled academically, socially, creatively and otherwise.
- Then there will be musical performances, dancing and comedy.
- The next day event starts at 9am on the16th of March, 2008 (Sunday) with an inspiration speech by a distinguished speaker, a forum for discussing issues and drawing up a memorandum to be passed unto the Nigerian Government and then there will be closing remarks and vote of thanks.
- The event closes with a networking session.
- The conference comes to a close by 12 noon on the 16th of March, 2008.
Book Aid Project (BAP)
The Book Aid Project is an initiative of Xn Foundation with the simple objective of collecting books from British universities and transferring them to libraries in academic and other institutions in Nigeria.
Most members of Xn Foundation have studied in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom. While studying here, we became aware of a constant modernisation of book collections, resulting from new publications, as well as revisions of older works. On the other hand, due to chronic under-funding, Nigerian research facilities are starved of these books.
What we propose is a mechanism, by which recently outdated books are transferred to Nigeria, where they will be of immense value in a system where there are few, if any books to speak about. We will make the necessary arrangements for any donated books to be shipped to Nigeria . We are also constantly reviewing the course structures in various Nigerian universities, to ensure that the books are sent to the most appropriate departments.
It is anticipated that this project will fill a huge learning gap in Nigeria . Books are very expensive, but in addition to the under-funding mentioned earlier, they are unaffordable for most individual students. The result is that Nigerian students have insufficient exposure to academic discourse in their various disciplines. Future postgraduate students from Nigeria will arrive in the UK better prepared for the rigours of their programmes. Furthermore, there is currently no alternative use for any books that have become outdated.
Interestingly however, over the past months, we have been collecting these books and are still collecting them. The second phase of this will be sourcing for funding and sponsorship to transfer them to Nigeria.
Nigerian International Student Agenda (NISA)
NISA is an acronym for the Nigerian International Students Agenda, which is an initiative of the Xn Foundation (www.xnfoundation.org) aimed at projecting the ambitions of Nigerian students worldwide and representing their interests. It will act as the umbrella forum for the Nigerian International Student community on several developmental projects. It was inaugurated during the International Conference of Nigerian Students (ICONS) 2007.
Principal amongst the projects of NISA is a comprehensive web based chat room facility where the rooms are different academic courses and subject areas where Nigerian students can log into from any location in the world to chat with other professionals/students in that specific subject room and share academic and professional information.
It will act as a web based medium of career development, job placements and acquisition for Nigerian current and potential graduates. It will be an unparalleled information source for courses(short and long durational courses, professional courses, accreditation courses) available in different institutions of the world, entry qualifications, scholarship advertisements to mention but a few.
It will also have a forum where ideas, proposals and creative skills (poetry, musical, scripting, art work, academic papers etc), are displayed online by interested Nigerian students. It will be home for academic competitions, talks about various aspects of the lives of Nigerian International Students, advisory network on academic report writing, thesis and dissertation proposal development, professional consultations on different course areas, help and support for the Nigerian International Student.
It will be governed by an administrative board, an advisory board and an editorial board selected from the Nigerian international student community.
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