When the National Open University of Nigeria popularly known as NOUN was founded in 2004 by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, it never had recognition.
Being an Open and Distance Learning institution, it depended solely on the Internet for its operation. And at that time, the Internet was not widely accessible in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians looked at NOUN with despair and never saw it standing the test of time.
Today, NOUN is Nigeria’s largest tertiary institution in terms of student number, over 550,000 students. It was specifically set up for Nigerians who never had the opportunity to attend conventional universities. Many Nigerians who work and intend to further their studies find NOUN as the perfect option for them. They work while making efforts to get their degrees.
However, there have been questions if other universities and abroad recognize NOUN degrees? Can you transfer credits to other higher institutions of you intend to run for another program, maybe MSc or Ph.D.?
Grassroots.ng in a chat with several NOUN students and alumni gathered that irrespective of the fact that NOUN has not started deploying its graduates for NYSC that the degree is recognized globally.
According to Chukwudi Nwodo, an alumnus of NOUN who currently runs a Masters program at the University of South Africa explained that it was easy for him to have been accepted.
He said NOUN is recognized internationally and its framework can also be likened to top distant learning institutions in the world.
He added that in some cases secondary school certificate was no longer enough to. “It would also interest you to know that, to study for an undergraduate course abroad, WAEC is not enough, people now go to NOUN and do 100level to get admission abroad for undergraduate programs.
Another NOUN student, Johnson Adedoyin explained that NOUN is not different from top universities in the globe that also provides distant learning.
”Even Yale, Oxford and Cambridge University including Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer online recognized programs. I mean you won’t leave your room here in Nigeria and your certificate will be sent to you. So how is NOUN different,” he asked.
According to Mr. Aderibigbe Mustaphar, whose son graduated from NOUN, his views are not different from other NOUN students.
He explained that there have been lots of information that are not authentic about NOUN peddled by Nigerians.
The sixty-year-old man, aadded that his son currently runs an MSc program in Tourism at the University of Ibadan currently and his a product of NOUN.
It was also gathered that NOUN has international partners, global sponsors and international affiliation which makes it globally recognized institution of learning