The National Open University of Nigeria(NOUN), plans to set up a Faculty of Engineering, its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdalla Adamu has said.
Adamu disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, during a courtesy call to Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC).
According to him, NOUN respects regulatory agencies and will not do anything without their input and considerations.
“We are moving from a static situation to a very active situation; with the support we are getting from the NUC, everything is possible.
“I am not being specific at the moment, but I will let you know that we set up a committee to look into the possibility of establishing a Faculty of Engineering.
“That committee has submitted its report and it will be tendered at the next senate meeting.
“At the same time, there are challenges with courses that require specific competences—laboratory courses, clinical courses, engineering courses-these are courses that require competences.’’
Adamu appealed to NUC to intervene in the lingering stand-off between the institution and the Council for Legal Education (CLE) over the latter’s refusal to admit NOUN graduates into the Law School.
He also said that NOUN graduates were excluded from participation in the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) and solicited the commission’s intervention.
The vice-chancellor prayed the commission to direct Nigerian universities to desist from discriminating against graduates of NOUN in their postgraduate programmes.
According to Adamu, Nursing Science and all programmes in the Faculty of Science, require extensive laboratory experiences which pose a challenge.
“NOUN strives to enable students to acquire practical experiences through regional laboratories and agreements with existing hospitals and universities.
“We pray NUC to facilitate the use of university/hospital laboratories on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) basis for NOUN’s science and clinical based students throughout the federation,’’ he said.
Responding, Rasheed said that it was wrong to perceive NOUN as a part time institution as it was an Open Distance Learning (ODL) based institution.
He said that ODL was the future of university education as many countries had embraced it in accordance with modern realities.
According to him, NUC will seek the cooperation of NYSC and vice-chancellors in addressing the challenges raised by Adamu.
“Many graduates of NOUN may not qualify for NYSC because many of them may be above 30 years by the time they graduate; but technically, even if it is only one graduate that is below 30, he should be called up.
“We will address it with NYSC.
“It is a policy of CLE to deny certain categories of graduates the opportunity of attending law school; the perception is that NOUN operates on part time basis but that should be discountenanced.
“NOUN is an ODL institution and that is the future of university education around the world,’’ he said.
Adamu also pledged to discuss with vice-chancellors on how to share NOUN’s nursing students to acquire skills and competences.
He said he was part of NOUN as he was a sabbatical professor in the institution prior to his latest appointment. (NAN)
Meanwhile, the National Open University of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday formally announced the suspension of admissions into its Law programme.
The decision, according to its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdallah Adamu, was sequel to the exclusion of graduates of its Law programme by the Council for Legal Education, from attending the Nigerian Law School.
He also premised the decision on the advice by the National Universities Commission that students should be stopped from undertaking the course, pending the resolution of the impasse generated by the refusal of the Law School to allow NOUN graduates to attend its programme.
The CLE had taken the decision on the grounds that the mode of study of NOUN was either by correspondence or part-time.
Adamu made the announcement when he led a delegation of the Governing Council of NOUN on a congratulatory visit to the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Abubakar Abdulrasheed.
At the event, he also called on the National Youth Service Corps to allow NOUN graduates to participate in the mandatory one-year service.
Adamu said the interpretation of the Act establishing NOUN by CLE contravened the prevalent global understanding of the mode of instruction of the open university.
The VC said NOUN remained an Open Distance Learning institution which, according to him, provides accessible, affordable and equitable education to millions of individuals who would work and learn at the same time due to their circumstances.
He said, “We are praying to the Executive Secretary to draw the attention of the CLE to the fact that NOUN, as an ODL institution, does not equate to part-time or correspondence institution. In order to make things easier for everyone, we have accepted the NUC recommendation to halt admission into the programme until we streamline our activities with the CLE for NUC to convince the CLE that we are an ODL institution.”
