For those who would like to enrol in our Institute, it is very important to understand the practical validity of our qualification.
1. There is no problem for religious who would like to proceed to theological centres after our programme. Our qualification is enough to continue. And in any case, the acknowledgement depends on the specific relationship between the Holy See and the country where one intends to go. Certainly, there is no difficulty in any Ecclesiastical or Pontifical University all over the world. But as far as other countries are concerned, the cases may vary.
Nevertheless, there may be some difficulties for those who, after attending philosophical formation in our institute, may go for theological courses in Nigeria. In this case, it is fundamental to verify how to complement those theological exams we don’t have in our curriculum, which generally are done along the four years of the philosophical formation in local seminaries or religious centres. A possibility is that the student may be asked to have a kind of preliminary year in which they attend all theological courses not done previously. Actually, in our curriculum we offer some basic theological courses, but we don’t claim any high degree acknowledgment, since they are introduced for the purpose of a basic catechetical formation for our confreres in formation who, after philosophical studies, may find themselves in pastoral work.
2. Therefore, those who don’t have any possibility to go to study abroad after completing our curriculum, may have problems to have our Diploma acknowledged. In fact, our three-year programme is inconsistent with Nigerian philosophical curriculum. The experience of our past students tells us that so far there is only a university in Nigeria (Imo University) that fully recognised our qualification, therefore admitting them without any further requirement to the Master’s Degree programme. Other universities instead have required 1 or even 2 more years to integrate the curriculum and get the Bachelor Qualification necessary for the Master Degree programme.
Finally, we are not offering accommodation, nor are we supposed to help in any manner in the issue. For those lay students who would like to enrol in our centre, they may rent a house in our area, which is fast developing.