No fewer than 15,000 new students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), matriculated today, June 13 via online.
The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, at the occasion, advised the students to rise to the challenges of the modern world in their quest for knowledge.
The Vice Chancellor, who read his speech over the Zoom application to which many of the students logged on from all over the country, advised the students to see any challenge they encounter in the course of their studies as a building block.
“One block at a time, and you will erect a mansion. You are in the best position to do this because your learning is powered by your personal desire to learn.”
The Vice Chancellor noted that while many students enter higher institutions in order to become educated so that they can get jobs, the matriculating students at NOUN already have jobs and occupations.
Professor Adamu said that because technology has become a commodity, NOUN has optimised its online facilitation exercise such that students can easily interact directly with their lecturers.
According to him, the university is the only one having a Directorate of Learning Content Management System (CLMS) which in due course could become a full-fledge online university.
He said that all the academic programmes of the university are fully accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in order to ensure their integrity
“Our programmes, quality assurance and delivery mechanisms are therefore more solid than those of many conventional universities who keep coming to us to see how we work this technological magic.”
Adamu informed the new students that this was his last matriculation address at NOUN, his tenure of five years having to end in February, 2021.
“I want to meet you in the next four years, during your graduation, not as Vice-Chancellor, full of knowledge and ready to take on the world as a result of your studentship in NOUN, and proudly watch you graduate with flying colours as simply the best of the best.”
The matriculation oath was administered online on the students by the Registrar of the university, Mr. Felix I. Edoka.
The event was beamed live on the social media and NOUN platforms and was conducted online because of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the federal government to shut down all schools in the country since March, 2020.
NOUN is the only single-mode open and distance learning university in Nigeria and the largest in West Africa with 580,000 enrolled students spread in 78 study centres across Nigeria.
