The Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu has disclosed that the school is the biggest in Nigeria with 536, 000 students.
He made this disclosure while delivering his address at the project launch of Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) on Monday at the school premises in Abuja.
The NOUN Vice-Chancellor also said all inmates in the school were on scholarship, adding that “539 prisoners are studying various degree programmes in NOUN.”
He said any inmates in the country with five credits can enroll for any programme in NOUN for free.
Speaking on the ACETEL project, Prof. Adamu said the school was providing opportunities to thousands of Nigerians to get University education through the use of information technologies.
He said the World Bank had pledged to support the project with $8million but added that the school was willing to start the project on its own because of its prospects.
Speaking on the project, the Centre Director of ACETEL, Prof Grace Jokthan said the Centre focuses on development of human capacity and research in digital solutions that will lead to utilisation of technology for education and its deployment to other sectors.
She added that the centre is targeted at bridging the technology knowledge gap by building capacity in Information and Communication Technologies, Cyber Security and Digital policies to achieve high levels of digital development on the African continent.