ODeLAN: NUC Pledges Increased Access to Varsity Education

Funmi Ogundare 

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, says NUC is reviewing its 2022 guidelines to expand access to university education in Nigeria.

This, he noted, will be achieved through the instrumentality of Open Distance and e-Learning.

Rasheed disclosed this at the inaugural conference of the Open, Distance and e-Learning Association of Nigeria (ODeLAN), held recently at Babcock University, Ilishan- Remo, Ogun, stating that once the guidelines for the establishment of private open universities in Nigeria were ready for use, NUC would begin to approve interested promoters to start floating open universities in the country.

The NUC executive secretary said with the guidelines for the provision of Transnational Education (TNE), the commission was working with six-model guideline models.

Rasheed explained that as part of efforts to mainstream the integration of ICT tools into the activities of Nigerian universities, NUC conducted the first phase of e-learning readiness assessment visits to 30 universities in October 2021, adding that the commission had completed the 2022 e-Learning Readiness Survey.

“In addition to the release of guidelines for e-Learning, Nigeria has been revered as one of the nations of the world that has its policy for Open Educational Resources (OER). Guidelines for the implementation of OER policy have also been developed,” he stated.

The NUC boss added that capacity building remained one of its critical interventions in promoting ODeL in the university system and, as a result, is working closely with institutions and organisations to build human capital through training and retraining, workshops, conferences, symposium and so on.

He opined that ODeLAN would continue to demonstrate its commitment to advancing the course of distance learning, particularly in ensuring parity of esteem and quality.

On its part, he said the commission would continue to work with ODeLAN in widening access to university education in Nigeria without compromising quality and remain firm in its position to maintain quality in all modes of education delivery in the Nigerian university system.