'Nigeria needs to build 1 new university every 10 days if...’ — NOUN VC

Without the open and distance learning system, Nigeria would need to build one new university every day to meet the tertiary education needs of the population.

The Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, said this while speaking with Daily Trust in Abuja.

Tenebe argued that the distance learning system is inevitable because there are far too few universities in the country to be able to serve the entire Nigerian population.

"We attended a conference in India and it was reported in the conference that if India with 1.2 billion people were to meet the education requirement of higher education, they will have to build a university every day for the next ten years," Tenebe said.

"When you extrapolate from that, Nigeria being 10 per cent of India’s population will have to build a university every ten days to meet the admission requirement of the youths.

He also rubbished claims that conventional universities using face-to-face system produce better quality graduates than NOUN, arguing that the distance learning system makes 'students self-made.'

"By the time you go into the mode of study in the Open University, we will be better than any conventional student and reason is that in our system, you have to study on your own and become a ‘self-made person.’

"In the conventional university, students are spoon-fed and they become lazy.

"I went through the conventional university and when it was time for examination we cram.

"In Open University you learn on your own and you will never forget what you learned."

The Vice Chancellor revealed that NOUN presently has over 200,000 students, a number which it hoped to bring to half a million by 2017.