NOUN matriculates 17,000 students, to graduate 18,000 others

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the National Open University of Nigeria, Prof. Peter Okebukola, has said the open and distance learning institution is set to graduate 18,000 students across its study centres in the nation at a convocation ceremony billed for March 22 to 23 in Abuja.

He, also said the institution matriculated 17,000 students for the 2018/2019 academic session, pursuant to its mandate of attaining the one million students’ enrolment by 2023 as provided in the 2019-2023 Revitalisation Agenda for the Nigerian University System.

Okebukola, who is a former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, made this known on Thursday at the end of the 54th Meeting of the Council of the NOUN in Victoria Island, Lagos.

On behalf of the council, he expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for gazetting the NOUN Amendment Act, which has qualified graduates of the NOUN for the National Youth Service Corps and the Nigerian Law School.

 “We want to extend our gratitude to the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the NOUN Amendment Act. This has recently been gazetted and published on the December 3, 2018 as the National Open University (Amendment) Act 2018.

“With this recognition, the university is now placed at par with all recognised universities in Nigeria under the various Acts that amended the provision of higher education in Nigerian universities. What this means for the students is that they now have a vista of opportunities that they did not have before.

“For instance, for those who are reading Law, it will enable them access training in the Law School as negotiations between the university and the Council for Legal Education on this, has almost reached a breakthrough. It will also allow those who are eligible to be mobilised for NYSC, which elevates the NOUN to the same level as other universities in terms of status and provisions,” Okebukola said.

While congratulating the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on the success achieved in the implementation of the 2016-2019 Ministerial Strategic Plan, especially in access to education, he added, “The council has endorsed the plan to significantly improve the quality of NOUN graduates to be the best in Africa in programmes to be selected in phases so that all programmes are covered in the quality-enhancement drive by 2025.

“The university has embarked on setting up mechanisms to implement the recently-granted World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning. The University was especially applauded by the World Bank, at a recent meeting in the Republic of Djibouti, for being one of the only two universities, out of 44 beneficiaries, to have a female professor, Grace Jokthan, as Director of the project.”

Okebukola, however, noted that the university had put mechanisms in place to implement the recently granted World Bank African Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning, as he said the project would cost between $4m and $6m and last five years.

Meanwhile, at the 18th matriculation of the institution on Saturday, across 78 study centres in the country, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdalla Adamu, through the National Union of Road Transport Workers study centre Director, Prof. Ibikunle Tijani, in Abuja, said, since the last matriculation in 2018, the university had have put in place measures to ease the learning of students.

“In an attempt to revamp and re-invent the delivery, we have established a Directorate of Learning Content Management System which has been charged to bridge the gap between the students and the lecturers. Despite the university’s mode of flexibility, laziness or lateness is not condoned. The cost-effective advantage of the university is also to enable more students get quality education. To make the best of this experience, discipline is the key. Students are to desist from all anomalies such as cultism and sexual harassment,” Adamu said.