The vice chancellor, NOUN, Prof Abdalla Adamu appealed to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to intervene and prevail on the authorities of the NYSC to allow NOUN students participate in the scheme to enable them contribute their quota to nation building.
Adamu, who led a full squad of NOUN’s management to the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja on Tuesday, said the exclusion was contrary to the promotion of patriotism and unity in the country.
He said it was an irony that the most inclined of the nation’s graduates were excluded from a programme designed to engender patriotism and unity.
According to him, “It is national news that NOUN graduates are excluded from participation in the NYSC scheme, although exclusion letters are often provided.
“In NOUN, we train graduates with nationalistic outlook in Nigetia, and can boast to be the only university in Nigeria where people from all the LGAs in Nigeria are represented as students.
“However, this nationalistic outlook cultivated by our students is dampened by the painful fact of their exclusion from the NYSC scheme.
“The desire of NOUN graduates is to participate fully in the NYSC scheme and contribute their quota to the development of their nation. We are sure that with the appropriate intervention of the NUC led by you, this problem will be over,” he added.
Abdalla further disclosed that NOUN has suspended its law programme, following the exclusion of graduates of Law programme from attending the mandatory Law School of Nigeria by the Council of Legal Education (CLE).
He stressed that the suspension of admission into the programme followed an advice by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stop admissions pending the resolution of the inability of its graduates to go to Law School.
The Council for Legal Education had exempted law graduates of Open University from attending Law School on the ground that the mode of study at the Open University is either by correspondence of part time.
Prof Abdalla also called on the NUC to address the difficulty faced by NOUN students in running post graduate programmes at the masters and doctoral degree levels in universities.
Decrying the level of discrimination by Nigerian universities, he disclosed that the same NOUN students were offered post graduate admission into prestigious universities abroad and were excelling in studies.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, assured that any NOUN graduate under the age of 30 would undergo the NYSC scheme.
“Many numbers of graduates of NOUN may not qualify because either a number of NOUN graduates will be above the age of 30 when they complete their studies but technically even if it is only one number who is under the age of 30, will be allowed to go for NYSC.
“We will do our best to attempt to discuss in our management and reach out to the NYSC on this issue,” he added.
Rasheed further decried the discrimination leveled against NOUN graduates by universities disallowing them from running post graduate programmes in their institutions.
He noted that NOUN was run by professors in established universities in the country and could not understand why NOUN graduates should be discriminated against by the universities in their PG programmes.
Naijasimple.com
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