The Senate at its plenary on Thursday passed the National Open Univeristy of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which paves the way for graduates of the institution to be mobilised for national service under the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) and also be called up for Law School.
The amendment followed the consideration of a report on the amendment of the NOUN Act sponsored by Senator Jibrin Barau (APC, Kano), Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND.
When signed into law, the reviewed Act will align with requirements of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2012, the law which regulates the administration of universities in the country.
It will also remove discrimination against NOUN graduates which hitherto prevented them from participating in the national service or being admitted into law schools.
According to Senator Barau, the amendment will address public misconception of the concepts “correspondence” and “part-time” which creates the impression that programmes run by the institution are not full time.
“The word correspondence gives the impression that the university is not a full time university and as such seen as part time.
“These two concepts, ” correspondence” and ”part-time” significantly affect the way the public views the programmes run by the university.
“This has been the reason why the Law graduates of the school are not admitted into the Nigerian Law School as well as the reason for the non inclusion of the graduates of the university into the NYSC scheme,” said the Senator.
