Business School Netherlands ‘subsidising education’ for Nigerians

Business School Netherlands (BSN) says it is offering subsidy to Nigerian students to get a master’s in business administration with world-class standards.

This was disclosed by Juanita Bouwer, global chief executive officer (CEO) of BSN, and Lere Baale, chief executive officer (CEO) of BSN Nigeria.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, Baale said Nigerians pay as low as €10,000, as against €30,000 paid by their counterparts in Netherlands – for the same quality of learning.

Baale said the new foreign exchange regime are not adversely affecting the payment and activities of the school.

“When we fixed prices last year, it was equivalent to about €20,000 under the old exchange rate, but you know that today, exchange rate has gone haywire. The rates that used to be like 161 to 180 to the dollar is now about 370,” he said.

“The exchange rate has actually doubled in terms of naira, and since we did not change the price significantly, we only raised the price by about 10 percent from N3.3 million to 3.7 million.

“What that means is that the school is actually subsidising far more than we used to. The objective is not to restrict education only to the rich, but to expand this kind of beautiful education to as many people as possible.”

He said the school do not take its students through the challenge of sourcing forex, therefore, it has been insulated from the decline facing foreign schools, who focus on the Nigerian market.

“Student don’t pay in foreign exchange, they pay in naira and because of these, it has not significantly affected us,” Baale said.

“But because of their disposable income has not increase and there’s a high level of inflation, of course, the number of students that we would be recruiting will also be imparted.

“We just finished a review today and it shows that the number of students we have recruited so far in the first six months this year is similar to the number in the first six months of last year, under the old regime.

“What that means is that, it has not adversely impacted us; our numbers have not declined. We have actually been increasing recruitment”.

73 NIGERIANS BILLED FOR GRADUATION IN NETHERLANDS

Baale said since the school kicked off in Nigeria back in August 2003, it has recruited 1,187 students and graduated 414 students, with 73 billed for graduation in Netherlands later in the year.

He added that the students who are yet to graduate are still in school due to the action learning system, which ensures that students learn the theory of business administration alongside the practical.

Bouwer said the school operates a rolling system that allows a student to run a two-year MBA for as much as four years, if need be, especially to give time for the implementation of theory learnt.

Bouwer added that a typical student from BSN’s MBA is expected to carry out as much as eight projects, in order to fully attain the requirement for an MBA in the school.

The school says it has produced over 3,000 projects in a bid to improve businesses in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria.