By Gloria Emmanuel The Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Ado-Tenebe Tuesday said there was no justification not for the authorities of the Nigerian Law School not to offer admission to Law graduates of the institution.
Speaking at the Open Distance Learning Advocacy Forum and roll out of General Studies (GST) e-Modules for ODL in the Nigerian University System by the National University Commission (NUC), Ado-Tenebe, noted it was one of the challenges that the NOUN was still trying hard to address.
On what NOUN is doing regarding the rejection, he had this to say, “This is a challenge and we are working on that. Don’t forget that the Open University is a very new project and the NUC Executive Secretary just told you that anything that is new always have a challenge.
“We will not give up. We are following systematic steps to ensure that we do the needful so that our students will have their own quota in the Law School,”.
He explained that all Law students from all the universities, including university of Ibadan that is first in the country now have to wait for their quota.
He noted that because population and the number of Law graduates that are churned out annually, some of them have been waiting their quota in the past three years.
The Vice Chancellor said: “So, you do not expect that Open University, which just produce our first graduate of Law just this convocation will get automatic access.
“We have gone through the requirement at NUC. The Commission has given us accreditation, which is the most important for any academic programme; whether it is Law School, Nigerian Medical Association, ICAN, Nigerian Council of Engineering, they are all professional bodies.
“If NUC does not accredit for the Universities to produce graduates, you won’t have the professional bodies. These professional bodies have nothing to accredit. So, we have to do the first thing, and that first thing is for us to pass through NUC.
“Don’t forget that it is these universities that produce these professionals. And I stand to be corrected that the professionals cannot come around to accredit the universities. It’s just the question of egg and the chicken, which one comes first?” He added.
The Vice Chancellor, however, said the issue of acceptability formed part of the advocacy to reduce the level of ignorance about acquiring education through open and distance learning method, saying “there is no difference at all from the conventional”.
The five GST e-Modules launched by the NUC on the occasion, include Use of English, Philosophy and Logic, Nigerian Peoples and Culture, History and Philosophy of Science and Entrepreneurship Studies.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie, assured that the Commission is closely monitoring the Open Distance Learning in Nigeria to ensure quality of the system.
Okojie, however lamented that about one million of Nigerians are unable to secure admission into the conventional universities after sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination because of lack of access.
He said this situation could be ameliorated through encouragement of Open Distance Learning mode in the country with its flexibility.
