President Bola Tinubu has ordered the inclusion of graduates of the National Open University (NOUN) in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), for those within the service age bracket.

The President directed the Federal Ministry of Education to formulate necessary modalities to enforce the directive during his presentation at the 13th convocation ceremony of the university on Saturday, April 13, 2024. at the University’s Convocation Arena, Jabi, Abuja.

Tinubu was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission Dr. Biodun Saliu, who gave the directive during the recent convocation ceremony of NOUN.

Dr. Saliu said, “With the changing demographics of our great nation, the government has recognised the importance of allowing NOUN graduates to participate in the NYSC scheme.

“The doors of the Law School are now open to the graduates, ensuring equal opportunities for all. Any remaining concerns or uncertainties should be promptly addressed by the Federal Ministry of Education.”

In order to improve access to higher education in the nation, the President said his administration would keep promoting open and distance learning (ODL), emphasizing that ODL development is essential to reaching the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Tinubu said, “we will continue to do this in order to improve quality, access and affordability.

“The government is, therefore, committed through the Federal Ministry of Education and the NUC to provide the enabling environment to ensure a good delivery of this mode of education in Nigeria.”

Prior to this, the former vice chancellor of NOUN, Abdallah Adamu, gave graduates of 2027 assurances that they will soon be eligible to join the Nigerian Law School and the National Youth Service Corps.

Mr Adamu in an interview, noted that, “The fact is that the National University Commission law doesn’t allow those who do part-time studies to do NYSC, and the original Act that established NOUN says we offer courses by correspondence, and that is the expression NYSC is using to say ‘if it’s a correspondence course, then it is part-time, if it’s part-time, then the students are not eligible for NYSC.”

Recall that graduates of the NOUN Law Department had instituted a legal action on May 12, 2015, against the Council of Legal Education, the National University Commission, the Attorney General of the Federation and NOUN over their refusal to admit them into the Law School.

However, years later, a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt dismissed a suit filed by NOUN Law graduates seeking admission into the Nigerian Law School.