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By Gabriel Dike
Two postgraduate programmes of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Africa Centre for Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) have received full accreditation.
Pro-chancellor and chairman, governing council of NOUN, Prof. Peter Okebukola, disclosed this in Lagos after its 69th regular meeting, which also took stock of a number of activities of NOUN since the last meeting.
Okebukola said the NOUN ACETEL, a special academic centre jointly sponsored by the university, Association of African Universities (AAU), National Universities Commission (NUC) and the World Bank, has continued to blaze the trail in its development of ICT tools to enhance learning.
He said ACETEL postgraduate programmes at MSc and PhD in Cybersecurity, Artificial intelligence and Management Information System got full accreditation status from the NUC.
According to him, the centre focuses on development of human capacity and research in digital solutions that would lead to the utilization of technology for education.
On new study centres, Okebukola said NOUN, in pursuit of its mandate to take qualitative education to the doorsteps of all Nigerians, has continued to expand, with the establishment of more community study centres in the six geo-political zones of the country.
He said: “The advantage of this policy is that more and more qualified Nigerians now have easy access to university education. The latest of which are the over 13 study centres established in Kano State and other study centres recently resource verified by the NUC.
“Two study centres are to be established in Lagos State, in Ikorodu and Badagry. The university would seek more opportunities to extend to as many other communities as it is opportune.”
The Pro-chancellor revealed that NOUN has 103 study centres nationwide with about 600,000 students out of which 150, 000 are active.
Prof. Okebukola further explained that council approved the provision of solar panels at the study centres to supplement the conventional source of power.
According to him, “this is in view of the fact that the supply of power through the national grid may not always be available due to operational issues while the cost of running generators is scaring and getting out of the reach of many institutions, especially big ones like NOUN.”
The former executive secretary of NUC said the governing council commended the university management for the introduction of E-ticketing as one of the learner support services.
He said: “E-ticketing is an electronic solution that facilitates quick response to students and the general public complaints and enquiries. It will be recalled that since the system came on board, over 100 enquiries/queries are responded to in a given day.”
Okebukola expressed council’s appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for his continued support to NOUN that has resulted in some unprecedented developments in the areas of academic and infrastructure.
He further commended the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and the Executive Secretary of NUC for believing in the NOUN project.
