In its efforts to constantly expand access and maintain its position as the leading Open Distance Education provider, the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre is pushing for nine new programmes on its platform.
Tribune Education recalls that the Centre earlier this month received a 20-man National Universities Commission (NUC) team which came for a validation and revalidation exercise.
The NUC team’s visit happened exactly six years after a similar exercise that led to the loss of 19 programmes of the centre. Before that revalidation exercise which held between April 29 and May 3, 2012, the UI DLC had 25 programmes on its Open Distance Learning platform. All the available programmes were presented for revalidation, but only six survived.
Although the report of the revalidation exercise revealed that the centre performed well on other NUC parameters, it lost accreditation of the 19 programmes mainly due to obsolete course materials which were also not Open Distance Learning (ODL)-compliant. The six programmes survived mainly because their course materials were current and ODL-complaint.
Since that last revalidation exercise, however, according to a statement by Mr Dayo Olajide, the centre’s Communications Officer, UI DLC had not rested on its oars in ensuring that some of the old programmes and new programmes as well were ready for another NUC validation and revalidation.
The centre, under the leadership of Professor Oyesoji Aremu, building on the efforts of the immediate past administration led by Professor Bayo Okunade, presented three new programmes and six of the old programmes for validation and revalidation respectively.
The new programmes include B.A. History & Diplomatic Studies, B.Sc. Sociology, B.Sc. Computer Science, BLIS. Library, Archival & Information Studies, B.Ed. Guidance & Counseling, B.Ed. Adult Education, B.Ed. Educational Management, B.Sc. Statistics, and B.A. Communication & Language Art.
In her remark when the NUC team visited the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, the leader of the 20-man team, Mrs Agnes Bamgbala, noted that Open Distance Learning is the panacea to inadequate access to tertiary education in the country.
She then appreciated the management of the university for its dogged pursuit of Open Distance Education (ODE).
She explained that the DLC was asked to step down a number of programmes at the last revalidation exercise to allow for them to be ODL-compliant, adding that the commission is working in partnership with tertiary institutions, not just to ensure quality ODL delivery but to help protect their integrity.
Professor Olayinka, in his remark, expressed his delight at receiving the teams, and added that the university was not averse to opening up its doors for NUC inspection.
He noted that the University of Ibadan had been investing in the Distance Learning Centre to become a viable alternative to getting the university’s degree.
He boasted that University of Ibadan graduates on the ODL mode had been doing well in their various fields. He then expressed hopes that the centre would scale through and have the nine programmes on board the university’s ODL platform.
