National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), recently hosted the 53rd meeting and the celebration of 30 years of Committee of Deans of Postgraduates Schools. MARTIN PAUL, who was there, writes.
Th e quest for higher education, particularly university has been a thorn in the flesh of not only parents, but governments at all level in the country.
While it is commonly said that over a million candidates write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) each year, a paltry number of 300, 000 or even less are given admissions into the conventional universities. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has frantically tried to spread admission into the three-tier of tertiary institutions, but demand continues to swell each passing year.
Parents, and even prospective students, too, never wanted anything short of university education in view of discrepancies and disparities between a university graduate and others.
However, the return of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) education, a programme widely supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) in the 52-member country, many are now focused on the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to remove the ceiling that restrict y7oung and adult Nigerian from university education.
Although without campuses and subcampuses like the conventional universities, NOUN at present, has about 72 study centres spread across the federation to reach out to over 200, 000 students, a figure, which over 51 conventional universities, put together, admit students in a year. One worrisome and frequently asked question bothers of infrastructures and communication for effective distance learning programme in the country, considering poor network system and power supply.
Thus, at the 53rd meeting and 30 anniversary celebration of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools (CDPGS) in Nigerian universities, NOUN viceChancellor, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, stressed the need for effective websites and interconnectivity with others. “At NOUN, postgraduate programmes of the university are run on a flexible basis in line with our motto: ‘Work and Learn’. Our programmes are designed to expand the depth of students’ knowledge and to develop new skills, update professional competencies as well as add value to the learners’ organisations and businesses.
“Aware of our status as the only Open and Distance Learning university in the country and the role of ICT in the attainment of our strategic objectives, we have taken steps to boost our capacity and manpower in this regards. So much so that virtually all our ICT manpower is now internally sourced, doing away with third parties and saving hundreds and millions for the university in less than two years of my assumption of office”. Charging the conventional universities to establish functional websites and connectivity, Adamu never minced words by saying that Nigeria as Africa’s largest country, was in a hurry to meet the manpower demands of the century. “
The demand for postgraduate education in the country is on the increase as well as the demand for professionals in every field of endeavour, emerging disciplines and industrial workforce. “This constantly poses a challenge to academia to remain up-to-date in its role of training the needed professionals and initiating research that drive industries and the economy.
“I believe you will agree with me that the country’s ivory towers have a long way to go in ensuring synergy between academic curricular and industry needs on the other hand the relevance, quality, output, impact and lock of university research on current industry practice. The glaring fact remains that there are yearning gaps in these areas”. Talking about the yearning gaps, the NOUN Dean of Postgraduate School, Dr. Samaila Mande, attested that the 30th NOUN: Showcasing ODL imperatives for varsities National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), recently hosted the 53rd meeting and the celebration of 30 years of Committee of Deans of Postgraduates Schools. MARTIN PAUL, who was there, writes. anniversary of the CDPGS was an avenue to showcase the imperative stride of the university, averred that Nigeria, through ODL of the NOUN, has contributed immensely to “bring quality and affordable education to all who seek knowledge”. “
You will agree with me that in ea of information and communication technology (ICT), there are trending and chic developments which have fundamentally transformed the way and manner teaching and research are conducted in the 21st Century.
Issues such as quality of instructional content, acceptability of degrees from other institutions in Nigeria and abroad, the role of the regulatory body, issue of funding, among others, are the cock n he wheel effective operation of postgraduate programmes in the universities. “All these are the challenges facing postgraduate programmes in Nigeria universities today, but we must, however, not forget the core issue of funding and how do we deliver quality education at an affordable price. Mande stressed the belief that with modern technology, it was possible to deliver quality education, especially at NOUN to the teeming population, yearning for university education.
“NOUN has expanded access an expanded access to university education by establishing over 70 Study Centres across the nation under the omnibus Directorate of Learner Support Services (DLSS). Besides the eight faculties, Mande also disclosed that there are academic and quasiacademic directorates such as Access and General Study Unit (AGSU) Centre for Entrepreneurship Studies and Lifelong Learning (CESLL), the Regional Training and Research Institute for Open and Distance Learning (RETRIDAL).
Factually, postgraduate studies, according to Mande, started in 2003 with five schools, which have now re-named as faculties, but was formalise at the 46th regular meeting of the senate of the university on April 2009. “As part of reform agenda, NOUN is making huge stride in domesticating certain important functions that were hitherto contracted out to third parties, some of which were the operations of the university website and students’ portal. “Our Directorate of Management Information Service (DMIS) and Information and Communication Technology (DICT), manned by seasoned technocrats, are now NOUN Senate Building Photo: Martin Paul fully in charge of some of these services and the university is making huge saving that could be channeled into other needed areas. There is no disputing the fact that NOUN has come to stay even with its postgraduate studies and students yearning for university education are no longer skeptical to the genuiness of the university, but what is wrong is the attitude of other universities for not accepting NOUN certifi cates for further studies.
To this end, Mande described the action as an “aberration since NOUN programmes have undergone necessary quality assurance processes and accreditation exercises”. Sending postgraduate students’ transcripts to the conventional universities is another problem with NOUN, Mande said even when the transcripts were sent, some postgraduate schools do not have a proper documentation process to account doe transcripts received. “Implication of this is that NOUN incurs more cost in the process to re-send such transcript, citing that there were times, as a result of deadline, NOUN would have to send the transcript by e-mail. Unfortunately, many postgraduate schools do not have functional website, thus putting NOUN at jeopardy on how to send transcript to the institutions and not to individual or personal e-mail addresses. About 20 federal, states and private universities, including NOUN participated at the 53rd meeting of Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools (CDPGS) in Nigerian universities.
High point of the three-day meeting was the cutting of anniversary cake, tour of NOUN facilities, anniversary lecture to mark the 30th anniversary of the (CDPGS), which prominent scholars were expected deliver papers on topical issues.
