Ebonyi State Governor, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, has called for an end to discrimination against graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, saying they are intellectually equipped to compete favourably with graduates of conventional universities.

The Governor made the call on Thursday when he received the Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Uduma Oji Uduma, and his management team at the Government House, Abakaliki.

Nwifuru said his administration has had direct intellectual engagement with many NOUN students and found them to be of high quality.

“I have had an intellectual encounter with many students of the University, I found out that many of them have what it takes to compete favourably with their counterparts from the regular universities,” he said.

“The professionals in this university are not less in quality with their counterparts. If they are not, it means their students are not also inferior.”

The Governor urged stakeholders, including employers and regular universities, to adopt non-discriminatory attitudes towards NOUN graduates and products of Open and Distance Learning, ODL.

Reaffirming his government’s commitment to expanding access to education, Nwifuru pledged full support for NOUN in Ebonyi.

“We welcome any initiative that expands and consolidates access to education in Ebonyi State,” he said.

“We will give you all the needed support. We are relocating your Study Centre to a bigger and more conducive space to enhance learning and drive research and community service.”

He described education as the centrepiece of his administration’s People’s Charter of Needs Agenda, and said the state is willing to partner with both state and non-state actors to achieve educational goals.

Chronicling milestones in the education sector, the Governor said over 700 Ebonyians have been sponsored for postgraduate degrees in Europe within the last 3 years, adding: “We did this because we want them exposed to the world.”

He added that his administration is determined to give young Ebonyians the exposure needed for global relevance and competitiveness.

Nwifuru also applauded the achievements of Prof. Uduma, an Ebonyi indigene and Professor of Logic, as NOUN Vice Chancellor.

“We know what he will do in the National Open University. We are happy that Professor Uduma has what it takes to take the University to an enviable height where everyone will be very proud of,” he said.

In his remarks, Prof. Uduma said the visit was to assure the Governor of NOUN’s readiness to partner Ebonyi in advancing tertiary education through ODL.

He noted that NOUN is the largest university in Sub-Saharan Africa with over 190,000 students and 128 study centres and campuses.

“The primary aim of the National Open University is to make education accessible to everyone by removing all forms of barriers,” he said.

The VC regretted that the Southeast has the least number of NOUN campuses, and Ebonyi is the last state to get a study centre.

He expressed willingness to partner the state and existing universities in Ebonyi to run a “dual mode” system where students can learn physically on campus or virtually.