The National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, 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, CLE from attending the Nigerian Law School.
He also premised the decision on the advice by the National Universities Commission, NUC 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, NYSC 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.”
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