Amended Act will make NOUN equal to other Nigerian varsities —Okebukola

The National Open University of Nigeria says the recent signing of its (Amendment Act, 2018) will place it at par with all recognised universities in Nigeria.

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the university, Prof. Peter Okebukola, said this at a news conference on Thursday in Lagos.

According to him, with the act recently gazetted and published on Dec. 3, 2018, will further strengthen the university to provide Open and Distance Learning opportunities to millions of Nigerians.

“We want to extend our gratitude therefore 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 3rd of December 2018 as 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 also 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 after graduation to take on their training in the Law School as negotiations between the university and the Council for Legal Education on this, has almost reached a breakthrough.

“It also will allow those who are eligible to be mobilised for NYSC to go for NYSC but to me, what it means is that it elevates the NOUN to the same level with other universities, in terms of status and provisions as the others.

“So, we can operate as they operate, we have the same general guidelines for our operations and so no one will say NOUN is substandard to the others,” he said.

Okebukola said the council had also approved March 23 and March 23, for the university’s 2019 convocation ceremony, where approximately 18,000 students will be graduating.

He added that a total of 17,000 students would be officially admitted into the university for the 2018/2019 academic session during its matriculation ceremony scheduled for March 3, in all the study centres across the country.

Okebukola, who lauded the TETFund for intervening in capital development and in staff capacity building and also urged continuous funding for NOUN, being a specialised university that enroles the largest number of students in Nigeria.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdalla Adamu, reiterated the management’s commitment to producing quality graduates needed to take the country to the next level.

“Our university remains the university to beat in the country and Africa as a whole, going by our programmes, study materials, affordability, and others,” Adamu said.

(NAN)