The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Law students have called out for help over the scrapping of the law programme by the University management, which left students who are nearing completion of their projects in dilemma.
According to a SaharaReporters report, documents show 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.
Over 1500 final year students of the university were reportedly 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.
It was gathered that it cost about N3 million for a law student to graduate up to 500 level in the institution.
SaharaReporters earlier reported how 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.
