Prison inmate enrolls for a Doctorate degree in NOUN
The Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University, Prof. Abdalla Adamu announced on Monday, that a prisoner will soon enroll for a doctorate programme in the University (NOUN) during the opening of the 53 Meeting and 30Anniversary of the Committee of Deans of Post-Graduate Schools (CDPGS) in Nigerian Universities in Abuja.
According to Adamu, prison inmates and juvenile who are willing and qualified are given free education as part of NOUN’s corporate social responsibility.
“We have 84 study centres including the prisons; NOUN is the only university that allows prison inmates totally free education because that is the opportunity they have to learn.
“Right now, we have somebody who has finished his master’s degree and he is about to embark on PhD and he is still behind bars.
He urged the committee to fashion out a mechanism for improving the global ranking of Nigerian universities.
The Vice-Chancellor expressed regret that Nigerian academics hardly uploaded their research content on the internet, hence the poor online visibility of Nigerian universities.
Adamu said that unless a university established a strong online presence, it would not be ranked.
He said that NOUN complied with the National Universities Commission (NUC)’s guidelines and had all its programmes duly accredited and wondered why the institution’s products were denied postgraduate admission.
According to the Dean, School of Postgraduates Studies, NOUN, Dr. Samiala Mande, in his address said there was need for Nigerian universities to catch up with modern methods of teaching and research.
He listed some of the challenges confronting postgraduate studies as dearth of research grants, quality of graduates, quality of instructional content, and limited availability of PhD holders to recruit, among others.
Mande said that NOUN encountered difficulties in sending transcripts of postgraduate applicants to other universities.
“Even when the transcripts are sent, some postgraduate schools are said not to have a proper documentation process to account for transcripts received. He said.
