NOUN law programme: We will protect the rights of our students —VC

NOUN law programme: We will protect the rights of our students —VC

The Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, has said that the institution is empowered by law to run its law degree programme.

The vice chancellor, who spoke to journalists after the university’s 7th Inaugural Lecture on Tuesday, said the school would ensure that the rights of its students were protected.

He said: “We are following due process to ensure that the rights of our students are protected. I make it known to everybody that this is a federal university. This university started after the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission produced a blueprint under which we are operating. In that blueprint, we have 10 schools, referred to as faculties in other institutions, and they were approved by the Federal Government.

“I have not found anywhere it is said that I cannot admit or allow students to study law in the National Open University. What I can tell you is that if there is any professional body that says that students or graduates of National Open University cannot join their profession, we will only follow due process to ensure that the rights of our students are protected.”

Also speaking, the Inaugural Lecturer and Dean of the School of Law, Professor Justus Sokefun, said NOUN’s law degree programme was not a “correspondence course.”

He said: “Our own duty is to provide some education to the public and the Council for Legal Education so that they know that law is not a correspondence programme at National Open University. I don’t know of any university in Nigeria where law is run as a correspondence programme.”

It is recalled that the Council for Legal Education had, weeks ago, announced that law graduates from the National Open University of Nigeria were not eligible for admission into the Nigerian Law School.