NOUN operates purely by NUC standard – Chukwuma

The Director, Port Harcourt Study Centre, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Dr. Nnenna Nancy Chukwuma, has stated that the university operates purely by the standard set by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the apex regulatory body of the university education in Nigeria.

Chukwuma made the explanation during a live phone-in interview programme on Treasure FM, an FM station of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) in Port Harcourt on Monday, 13 September, 2021.

One of the listeners asked why the university insists that students of B.Sc. Nursing Science should go through a five-year programme even when they had spent about three years at the School of Nursing, the director explained that all academic programmes of NOUN are being regulated by the commission, which determines the contents and duration of all academic programmes offered at all universities in the country.

The live radio programme was done in partnership with the FRCN, South-south Zone, as part of a line-up of activities for an intensive advocacy campaign ordered by the Governing Council of the university to increase students’ enrollment.

Earlier, the director, FRCN, South-south Zone, Mr. Lucky Obare, while receiving the Chukwuma and members of her advocacy team at the radio station in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Complex, Mgbuoba, Port Harcourt, had expressed delight at the partnership his organisation has entered with the Port Harcourt Study Centre of NOUN.

“I am truly excited about the partnership which has afforded us at FRCN, South-south Zone, the access to make use of your auditorium for our promotional examinations. But for that arrangement, we would have been stranded that day because we did not even envisage that such a large number of our personnel would turn out for the exams. Please anytime you have any need to go on air, just give us at least one week notice and we will have it done,” Obare said.

Chukwuma, at the early moments of her assumption of office, with the approval of the university management, had initiated a partnership between her centre and the South-south Zone of the FRCN, to offer the later the centre auditorium for its promotional examinations; while the university will enjoy free broadcast time at the FRCN radio station in Rivers State, anytime it has such need.