Education
National Open University, NOUN scraps law programme
* As 1000 students’ career in jeopardy
By Francesca Hangeior.
Concerned by the development, students under the aegis of “concerned law students” wrote the House of Representatives seeking intervention.
The National Open University (NOUN) Law students have called out for help over the scrapping of the law programme by the University management, leaving students who are nearing completion of their projects in dilemma.
Documents sighted on social media revealed that on 25th of January, 2023, the University’s Senate ratified the scrapping of the law degree programme of the University, at the end of the 2023 second semester .
Concerned by the development, students under the aegis of “concerned law students” wrote the House of Representatives seeking intervention.
In the letter dated on 27th of October, 2023, the House of Representatives acknowledged the call for intervention while promising to convene a meeting between student representatives and the management of the Open University.
Other correspondences received show that between November 2023 and January, 2024, the National Assembly held a meeting between the students and the university management however, this has not led to a meaningful development.
It was gathered that over 1500 final year students of the university are affected by the decision to make the law department “cease to exist”.
These students are at the risk of not graduating despite spending millions to study the law degree in the institution.
Reports have it that it cost about N3 million for a law student to graduate up to 500 level in the institution.
Earlier, students of the institution lamented their inability to be issued graduation certificates and failure of the university to convoke them, putting them in a dilemma of lacking evidence to show for their academic sojourn in the institution.
Although the University denied, NOUN, which operates a distance-learning and study Centre model, has been at the fore of controversies around issues of accreditation and management.
Students lament that the institution does not usually communicate developments to it and fails to attend to their queries on these developments that affect their academic wellbeing.
A student who does not want to be named noted that the development of the law students for instance was first seen on social media with no official communication to them.
“We were not notified, we only saw a statement on social media suggesting that the law programme would be stopped after we spent how many years on it and no one has offered any form of apology or genuine concern”.
It was also gathered that the university intends not to take in new law students in order to seek fresh accreditation for the law programme; however the legal dreams of the current 500-level law students and their investments for five years is threatened by the development of the institution’s law programme.
The Public Relations Officer of NOUN, Ibrahim Sheme, refused to comment on the development.
By Francesca Hangeior
Out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), over 1.5 million of them scored less than 200 in the exam.
The statistical analysis of 2025 UTME result released by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Monday indicated that only 420,415 candidates scored above 200 in the 2025 edition of the UTME.
While 4756 candidates scored above 320, 7658 candidates scored between 300 and 319.
In the statement accompanying the data, JAMB said “40,247 underage candidates were permitted to demonstrate their exceptional abilities. However, only 467 of these candidates (1.16%) achieved scores that meet the threshold for exceptional ability as defined for the UTME, with their performance in the subsequent three stages still pending.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities has announced the disbursement of the 2024 scholarship to 164 indigent students selected from branches of the union across the country.
This was revealed by the Convener of ASUU Grant, Research and Publications Committee, Professor Christopher Piwuna on Saturday during a press conference at the Sa’adu Zungur University, Yuli Campus, Bauchi State.
Piwuna explained that of the 79 ASUU branches, two successful applicants were selected in every university through a rigorous screening process.
He said each recipient of the scholarship went home with a non-refundable cash-backing of N200,000.
The Convener, who was represented by the former Coordinator ASUU Bauchi-Zone, Lawan Abubakar, said gender balance was reflected in the selection of the beneficiaries.
He disclosed that physically challenged beneficiaries were selected to support them to access tertiary education.
“Over the last two years, ASUU spent about N164, 800,000 on scholarships for indigent students in universities across the country.
“Our Union has been managing the Gani Fawehinmi scholarship for years, we decided to not only organise that of Chief Gani but institute our own.
“This creation was also shaped by the government’s unrelenting attacks on students and their parents through ‘school charges.’
“When we argued that NELFUND scholarship should be a grant, we meant it because we are not asking any parent or beneficiary of our indigent support to repay at a later day,” Piwuna said
Akelicious gathered that to qualify for this scholarship, interested applicants need to prove their indigent economic status and an excellent Cumulative Grade Average Point to the union.
JAMB has announced the date for the release of 2025 UTME Results.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has disclosed that the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will be released after the completion of post-examination analyses and other standard procedures.
The exam body made this known via its official social media handle on Tuesday afternoon, calling for patience among candidates who sat for the exam.
2025 UTME results to be released as soon as all post examination analyses and other procedures are completed. Candidates are enjoined to be patient please.
— JAMB (@JAMBHQ) April 29, 2025
The 2025 UTME commenced on Thursday, April 24, and will continue until Monday, May 5.
The nationwide exercise is being conducted across accredited Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres, with over 2,030,627 candidates registered for this year’s examination.
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