By Our Correspondent
Twenty-five inmates of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) would, on Saturday, join 22, 250 students to graduate from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Olufemi Peters, stated this on Tuesday while briefing reporters ahead of the 11th convocation ceremony of the university on Saturday.
A breakdown of the figures showed that 69 would be awarded First-Class degree, 4, 337 Second-Class (Upper), about 9, 499 would be awarded Second-Class (Lower) and 2, 700 students with Third Class.
The Vice-Chancellor said: “We are going to graduate 22, 250 students. This is wonderful. I don’t think there is any university that has this large turnout of people who are judged to be worthy of learning and character.
“We have 25 inmates, one graduating in MSc and the remaining 24 as undergraduates. All these are sponsored free by the university as our own contribution to social equality.
“The University is providing equity that we so desire in any egalitarian society. Equality is there because you have access to everybody.
“By taking education to the correctional centres, what we are doing is to provide a future for those people who, perhaps, though they were not going to have that opportunity.”
The Vice-Chancellor also said over 1, 500 graduates of NOUN have enrolled into the Nigerian Law School, adding that products of the university are doing well at the Law School.
Peters said all the institution’s programmes, including the law programme, have been fully accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
He said: “We have about 1,500 students who are graduates of our institution currently in the Law School. We have about the same numbers that are yet to be enrolled in the Law School.
“The reason I said it is a special relationship is that we had a slightly wonderful relationship with them because they were not sure about the kind of graduates we were producing and the idea now is to let us try them first.
“So, they are trying us now and they found out that they are extremely competent in terms of the people they have produced. So, we are waiting until after this batch has finished, most likely this year, then the next batch will come.”
On why NOUN is not part of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), he said the institution’s structure would not permit it to go on strike, unlike the conventional universities.
“With regard to ASUU agitations, yes, we do have agitations. That is normal in any human association, but these universities do not accept that our students are different from those of conventional universities.
“Our students have special motivation to study.
“As a result of that, we discourage our members of staff from joining the national strike; but they have every reason to have unions among themselves. We have restricted that because our students are not students who are different,” he added.
The Vice-Chancellor said the university was in discussion with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on how graduates of the university can participate in the national service.
“The University is providing equity that we so desire in any egalitarian society. Equality is there because you have access to everybody.
“By taking education to the correctional centres, what we are doing is to provide a future for those people who, perhaps, though they were not going to have that opportunity.”
The Vice-Chancellor also said over 1, 500 graduates of NOUN have enrolled into the Nigerian Law School, adding that products of the university are doing well at the Law School.
Peters said all the institution’s programmes, including the law programme, have been fully accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
He said: “We have about 1,500 students who are graduates of our institution currently in the Law School. We have about the same numbers that are yet to be enrolled in the Law School.
“The reason I said it is a special relationship is that we had a slightly wonderful relationship with them because they were not sure about the kind of graduates we were producing and the idea now is to let us try them first.
“So, they are trying us now and they found out that they are extremely competent in terms of the people they have produced. So, we are waiting until after this batch has finished, most likely this year, then the next batch will come.”
On why NOUN is not part of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), he said the institution’s structure would not permit it to go on strike, unlike the conventional universities.
“With regard to ASUU agitations, yes, we do have agitations. That is normal in any human association, but these universities do not accept that our students are different from those of conventional universities.
“Our students have special motivation to study.
“As a result of that, we discourage our members of staff from joining the national strike; but they have every reason to have unions among themselves. We have restricted that because our students are not students who are different,” he added.
The Vice-Chancellor said the university was in discussion with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on how graduates of the university can participate in the national service.
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