Understanding and Maximizing the Opportunities in TETFUND Sponsored Academic Conferences

Every year, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) budgets large sums of money to sponsor academic and non-academic staff of Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions to attend academic conferences under the Academic Staff Training and Development (AST&D) initiative introduced by the board of trustees of TETFUND in 2008 to build local capacity of teaching and non-teaching staff of Public Tertiary Institutions.

Under this initiative, teaching staff are sponsored both locally and internationally in various aspects of postgraduate studies and conferences, while non-teaching staff may only be sponsored to conferences.

Sponsorship Criteria for Conferences

Nigerian Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff shall be considered for sponsorship to participate in a conference that meets the underlisted criteria:

1. It must be an academic conference organized by Academic Institutions, learned societies, and/or recognized reputable professional bodies.
2. The registration fee for the conference must not exceed One hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (₦150,000.00) for local conferences, and Five Hundred US Dollars ($500) for international conferences.
3. The duration of the conference must not exceed five (5) days.
4. Participation in conferences/workshops arranged by local organizers to be hosted in a foreign country shall not be considered for sponsorship.
5. Participation in conferences arranged by third party Predatory Conference Organizers (PCOs) must not be recommended for sponsorship.
6. Participation in online/virtual conferences/workshops shall not be eligible for sponsorship. and
7. The conference must meet the important requirements of relevance to attendees’ academic disciplines and opportunities to present papers at the conferences where required.

Source: TETFUND Interventions Guidelines 2023 Edition

Getting Involved

• All eligible Academic Institutions, Learned Societies, and/or recognized reputable institutions are advised to ensure that they always include academic conferences meeting the above criteria in their training plans.
• To ensure easy access to the conferences and meet the needs of teaching and non-teaching staff from tertiary institutions in Nigeria, all providers are invited to upload their “academic conferences” into a central repository we are creating for such on our website in the Conferences/AGM/Seminars category. All listed Academic Institute, learned society, and/or recognized reputable Institutions on our website can load up to five (5) conferences (free of charge) per time. Please take advantage of this.

Steps to add Your Conferences to Our List.

1. If your institute is not already on our website, please click here to add it. Wait for confirmation that your upload has been activated, then login to start loading your courses.
2. For institutes that are already listed on our website, simply login here to upload your conferences. If you do not know or you have forgotten your username, please contact us here. If you know your username but have forgotten your password, use the “forgot password" option. A new password will be sent to your registered email address.

A link to the conference page will be made available on the TETFUND website for ease of access by the intended beneficiaries. This link will be monitored to ensure only TETFUND Scholarship Compliant Conferences are posted there.

For any other information or assistance, please contact us via WhatsApp on 08099909402.