NOUN To Graduate 12 First Class, 5,975 Other Students

Twelve students of the  National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) have bagged first class honours while 5,975 students  would be awarded various degree certificates in its forthcoming 6th convocation ceremony on Saturday in Abuja.

Speaking during a press briefing ceremony last weekend ahead of the  NOUN convocation ceremony, the  Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abdallah Adamu said the university has 224,000 students out of which 5,975 will be graduating at the event adding that the graduands spread across the eight faculties of the institution.

The NOUN VC said prisoners who want to study at the university would not be charged tuition fees.

“If a prisoner wants to study in noun, it is free of charge. We feel while they are there, they should not be denied education. But once he or she is out of prison they will pay,” he said.

The VC also disclosed that the law establishing the university was going to be amended to address the contentious issue of its law programme and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) entrance.

According to him, the National Assembly would be holding a public forum to expunge the phrase which said the university will provide knowledge through ‘correspondence’ and replaced it with ‘Open Distance Learning (ODL).’

“The Senate will hold public hearing on the law upholding NOUN on Monday 16th January, to make amendments on the provision of law school and when that is expunged after second and third reading, we are home-free.

“Part of the essence of the public hearing is to erase the concept that NOUN is part time. No, we are not part time. So if we emphasise that we are full time, then the barriers of NYSC will be moved away. NYSC will listen to us.”

He said law students from the university would attend law schools and graduates would soon be mobilized for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) after the amendment.

“I can conveniently tell you everybody is worried about our students not being admitted into the Nigerian law school,” Adamu said.

He said the university had reduced the incidences of missing results after developing its own independent web portal following the termination of the agreement with an IT company that developed and managed the previous portal.