NOUN postpones convocation over health risk

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has postponed its 2020 convocation ceremonies ‘because of risk to health.’

The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Abdalla Adamu, made the disclosure in an interview with our reporter in Lagos.

“We are graduating a total of 25,000 students in various disciplines but because of the risk to health and since NOUN is not like other universities that are enclosed, there will be no coming together for the ceremony.

“We have people coming from all over the country and we do not want to risk anything happening to any one, we have now decided that the best thing to do is to postpone the convocation until things get better,” he said.

The don said that all the graduating students would be issued their statements of result which, he noted, was sufficient for them to secure any job.

“The actual gathering for the ceremonies at the moment has been suspended until the world is stable.

“If you observe currently, you will discover that many international borders are closing down.

“These things are for safety measures and so, there is the need to consider life first before any other thing.

“Clearly, we have, at the moment, postponed the convocation; all inconveniences are regretted,”the vice chancellor said.

It was reported that NOUN, established in 2002, offers 57 programmes across 78 study centres nationwide.

The institution graduated a total of 17,000, 18,000 and 21,000 students in the year 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.