By Laide Akinboade

ABUJA—THE Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, yesterday, urged Nigerians to embrace Distance learning and National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN.

Okojie stated this at the Open Distance Learning, ODL, Advocacy Forum and Roll Out of General Studies, GST, E-Modules for distance learners in the Nigerian universities system in Abuja.

He said the fact that a student did not have regular lecturers, does not make him or her a lesser student than those with regular lecturers, saying ODL could be compared to any conventional universities.

He said: “When we say Nigerian universities are not well ranked; there are 6,000 universities in United States of America and Yale one of them, was established in 1701 and with a student population of over 12,000.

“Development has been going on since it was established in 1701.

“There is need to improve access to the university system. The general studies of ODL module is improving access to it.”