No fewer than 515,000 students are currently enrolled to pursue
different courses at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN),
the Vice Chancellor, Abdalla Adamu, has said.
Adamu said this yesterday during the first Vice Chancellor’s retreat
for principal officers, deans and directors of NOUN in Enugu.
He, however, said that of the figure, only 150,000 students are active
across the 78 study centres of the institution.
The vice chancellor described NOUN as a one-stop solution to open and
distance learning in Africa.
He said that the institution had spent the last 15 years developing
its programmes, adding that the institution has the largest open and
distance learning university on the continent.
Adamu said that no fewer than five countries in Africa— Tanzania,
Zimbabwe, Sudan, Mozambique and Malawi—were understudying NOUN.
“Our centre is now a reference point and the most successful. We are
dealing with African realities and problems and other countries are
sending their people to know how we run the programme.
“Recently, we gave out about 1,700-course materials to Zimbabwe on
request and others are also consulting us. This retreat is
introspective and aims at self and institutional improvement.
“We are going to look into our areas of strength, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats as custodians of open and distance learning
in Nigeria.
“The aim is to take from the positives of our achievements and
document them for posterity in form of annual report,” he said.
The Vice Chancellor said that NOUN over the last 33 months had focused
attention on system reform.
“We are going to interrogate our efforts so far and see how well they
have fared. In spite of our strategic importance, we must not forget
the number one stakeholders in the NOUN project– students.
“Thus, how to deliver to them a life-enhancing learning experience in
line with our university’s vision and mission must guide our actions
and thoughts, both here and elsewhere,” Adamu said.
Earlier in an address of welcome, the Director of Enugu Study Centre
of the institution, Alexander Onyia, said the university had made
progress in delivering qualitative education.
Onyia attributed the successes recorded by the institution to the
foresight of its founding fathers, devotion of the leadership as well
as cooperation of the students and other stakeholders.
(NAN)
