UI DLC now mounts 15 programmes •Targets 25,000 enrolment

FOLLOWING the clean bill of health given by the National Universities Commission after a recent validation and revalidation of its programmes, the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre ( UI DLC) now has a total of 15 programmes on its stable.

According to the director of the centre, Professor Oyesoji Aremu, this makes the UI DLC a clear leader in distance learning education.

Earlier in May this year, a 20-man team from the NUC had visited the Centre for a validation and revalidation exercise. It came exactly six years after a similar exercise in April/May 2012 led to the loss of 19 programmes.

Before that 2012 visit, UI DLC had 25 programmes, including those on its ODL platform, which were presented for revalidation; but only six survived.

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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 and materials that were not Open Distance Learning (ODL)-compliant.

The six programmes survived mainly because their course materials were current and ODL-complaint.

However, after retuning the programmes, the centre presented six of the old programmes it lost in 2012 for revalidation and three new ones for validation.

Last week, the NUC gave its nod for not just the old programmes re-presented, but also validated three new ones.

“Last week, we had the final verdict from the NUC that we had 100 per cent – that is, the six programmes that were revalidated and the three programmes that were validated.

“This gives the UI DLC 15 programmes – and that really makes Ibadan to be number one as regards the number of programmes on the Distance Learning Centre,” Professor Aremu told Tribune Education on Monday.

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.

Professor Aremu further said that with the current development, the goal of achieving 25,000 students enrolment on the ODL platform is achievable in the next three sessions.

It currently has “slightly above 9000” learners.