By Martin Paul
Abuja
Thirty-one of the 12, 125 students graduated with First Class degrees at the 6th convocation of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) held in Abuja at the weekend.
Vice-chancellor of the university, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, while delivery his convocation address, said of the total number, 3, 616 graduated fro the faculty of management sciences.
Adamu said 2, 087 emerged from faculty of sciences, while 2038 graduated from the faculty of education, followed by faculty of health sciences with 1956 graduands.
The faculty of social sciences, recorded 1509 graduands, faculty of law 676, faculty of agriculture 80 and faculty of arts, 72 graduands.
The university also graduated 90 students with PGDM and 2 each from CEMBA and CESLL departments.
Adamu also disclosed that Mr. Nkwo Jude Peter of Ikeja, Lagos study centre, emerged the best graduating students, while others also won some distinguished prizes at the convocation.
“As a social enabler of learning, NOUN presents unprecedented opportunities for libralising access to university education in Nigeria.
“The non-residential nature of the degree programmes make it possible for NOUN to provide a flexible and self-controlled learning system that is rapidly gaining traction in the world of contemporary learning processes”, Adamu added.
While listing the various achievements of the university, the vice-chancellor said “situations, structures and circumstances have contributed” to the delay by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to grant full accreditation to some programmes of the university.
Citing law programme as example, he said: Law graduates are prevented from proceeding to the Law School to train as Barristers of Law (BL) and be called to the Bar, so they can practice as lawyers.
“The Council of Legal Education apparently perceives NOUN Law degree programme as ‘part-time’ or ‘correspondence’, rather than open and distance learning”.
He, however, assured that, while the NOUN enabling Act was before the National Assembly for review, it was hoped that the problems of law students in the university, would soon be solved.
“On Monday January 16, the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund held a public hearing on the amended Act and it is our fervent hope that the updated version would pass the third reading and final approval”, Adamu added.
