UNICAL Set To Commence ODL Programme — Unical VC
By Abraham UKPA
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Banku Obi, has stated that the institution is ready to commence the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Programme.
Prof. Obi affirmed this in her office where she received a team from the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) who were in the University on a Pre-Validation Exercise for the ICT enabled Open and Distant Learning Programme.
She said the University was ready for the Pre validation visit geared towards ascertaining the Institution's level of preparedness in the well conceived programme.
The VC asserted that the institution is well experienced in Distance Learning Programme having run such a programme in the past.
According to her, "the University of Calabar has a long history of Distance Learning.
Many years back, the University ran more than 20 programmes across the country until when the NUC stopped such programmes in all the Universities.
So, we are quite sure everything is ready. Be it the manpower or expertise to run the Programme".
Prof. Obi informed the NUC team that the University is endowed with competent human capacity to handle any Programme up to Ph.D level.
In an earlier remark, the leader of the team and Director in the NUC, Dr Kayode Odedina, informed that their visit was to ascertain the level of the institution preparedness to run an Open Distance Learning Center.
Dr. Odedina said NUC demands a minimum benchmark in terms of human and material resources for such a Centre to get approval.
The NUC Director who noted that the future of education and other spheres of life is ICT enabled, stated that for any institution desirous of running a distance learning programme, the staff deployed to the Centres must have ICT capacity.
He said Distance Learning is not new having always been there as far back as 1848, adding that, University of London was the first institution to operate distance learning in Nigeria where many of the country's foremost technocrats availed themselves of.
"We are here to see your resources, human and material resources . Anyone expecting to work in the Centre must be ICT/ODL validated. This involves both academic and non teaching staff."
He further informed that, the NUC approved ODL though ICT enabled is not 100 percent online, stressing that, the ODL programme still expects a face-to-face interaction of at least two weeks in a semester.
