
NOUN: The Cornerstone Of Education And Leadership
It seems that as Nigerians we are always
after seeking world class infrastructure
without the desire to make world class
inputs. Nothing echoed this antithetical
desire as much as this week’s petition –
supposedly signed by students – calling
for the sack of the Vice Chancellor of the
National Open University of Nigeria
(NOUN) Professor Vincent Tenebe and
other top management of the institution.
One has to say supposedly signed by
students because the expectation is that
genuine students should understand what
the issues are and how their interplay
affects the running of the system.
A statement signed by the Congress of
NOUN Students accused the management
of not responding to their claim that the
institution has become a “den of endemic
corruption”. Maybe one will also offer no
response upon the realisation that the
entity being described has no relationship
with where one presides over. But again,
the management should for the sake of
reducing ignorance, educate the student
leaders and perhaps their sponsors about
the reality of the quality of education
that NOUN is delivering despite the
limited financing available to it. This
explanation would be useful for several
reasons.
First, there is that copycat tendency in
some people. If could just be that the
Congress of NOUN Students is out to
replicate its own version of the
#feesmustfall protest that recently
crippled several South African
universities over astronomical rise in
school fees. From the Nigerians
perspective, a simplistic view would be to
conclude that #feesmustfall protest 10 –
15% hike in school fees for the 2016
academic year but the larger picture is to
appreciate that the hike means an
average of N700,000.00 for each student.
Should the NOUN students be looking at
replicating the protest going by their
recent moves, it is best they also
compare their overall fees with what
obtains not just in South Africa but in
other countries.
The second reason the management has to
consider is the mere fact that the
leadership of NOUN, since inception, has
been superlative in the discharge of its
duties. NOUN moved from being a concept,
whose practicality and implementation
was earlier doubted, to becoming a
reliable institution. It even caught the
attention of former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, who became a proud student,
finished his degree and remained an
ambassador of distance learning in
Africa. The management has been able to
place the institution among Nigeria’s top
25 universities. It has also secured
Senate’s approval for its graduates to
take part in the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) programme.
These are achievements the management
of NOUN, under Professor Tenebe has to
celebrate more than it currently does so
that Nigerians and their prospective
students can appreciate the efforts they
are making to provide quality manpower
for the nation.
Furthermore, the university should create
awareness on the relationship between
the fees it charges and the quality it
turns out. People often desire free
education. The reality however is that
education is never free. Someone or some
entity is paying for or subsidizing
education whenever students are able to
get it for free. Another angle to this is
that people should have realised by now
that the word “cheap” and “quality”
should not occur in the same sentence
when they describe education. What the
Congress of NOUN Students want, going
by their statement and petition, is to
either have “cheap” or “free” education.
It is interesting to note that they made
no reference to the quality of what they
are getting out of distance learning,
which affords many of them the
opportunity to combine career growth
with education. One of the things the
Congress of NOUN Students is not
comfortable as indicated in their
statement is the increase in the fees
charged for research projects. Perhaps, a
starting point would have been for the
leaders of this congress to take a few
minutes to do a Google search with the
phrase “project research fees” or
“research project fees” and then take a
further few minutes to skim over the
search results.
They would then find that it is not a
trend that is only associated with NOUN –
other Nigerian universities charge the
fee. If these students have the energy
and patience to click on the links from
the search query, they will further
discover that project research fee
averages N70,000.00 at institutions that
charge them. A suggestion for these
students would thus be that they should
hold NOUN management accountable to
ensure they get quality supervision for
their projects upon the payment of the
prescribed fees. Also, while at it, they
should actively explore the possibility of
getting businesses and companies
interested in funding their projects by
working on viable research problems that
have industry applications. On the issue
of course materials, which the students
said they do not get on time, a workable
suggestion is for the student body to
work with management to have all
materials digitized and distributed
through the institution’s portal or via
mobile apps, since the era of hardcopy
study materials has all but fizzled out
anyway.
Enterprising students should be happy to
take up the creation of such platforms as
a challenge. On its part, the Professor
Tenebe led management of NOUN must
realise at this point that succumbing to
erroneous demands from students is not
an option here. If the management
succumbs once then it will never stop
giving in until the progress it has made
in recent years becomes eroded. Yes, the
students have threatened “peaceful
protests” if the management of the
school is not fired by President
Muhammadu Buhari but the threat should
not derail the school from delivering on
its mandate. It should also not force the
school to abandon the trajectory that has
seen its profile rise to be the first choice
for those who desire tertiary education
through distance learning. NOUN has
proven to be the cornerstone of education
and leadership.
This progress must not be reversed on
account of a few students’ leaders who
want the universe to run according to
their own whims. NOUN is not an
alternative to university education and
not a certificate factory where lazybones
go to buy titles and certificates. Rather
it is a pathway to higher learning.
Students who are not ready to learn with
the world class and highly sophisticated
technology must opt for other vocation
like pottery making, carpentry, tailoring
and other skill acquisition ventures and
not resort to this poor attempt at
blackmail. It is obvious that the spread
of the University and accreditation of
courses carried out by the National
Universities Commission (NUC) under this
management team are clear
understanding that these are clear cut
academicians that mean well for our
educational system.