The Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Uduma Oji Uduma, has underscored the university’s position as a leading institution in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in Africa.
Prof. Uduma stated this on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, while declaring open a three-day workshop on questions setting and questions banking for the 2026_2 Pen-on-Paper (POP) examinations across the university’s nine faculties in the South-East Zone.
While describing NOUN as the largest university in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Vice-Chancellor said the university had continued to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of ODL in expanding access to higher education.
He noted that while there had been some hesitation by conventional universities towards ODL, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019–2020 demonstrated globally that flexible and technology-enabled learning would remain an important pathway to acquiring higher education.
According to him, several conventional universities are now adopting dual-mode systems of education, further underscoring the growing relevance of ODL.
Uduma explained that NOUN’s engagement of lecturers from conventional universities in the development of course materials, facilitation of courses, examination question setting and marking, project supervision, and teaching practice supervision reflects the university’s commitment to engaging highly qualified academic minds.
He stressed that such collaborations enhance academic standards, quality assurance and credibility across the university’s programmes.
The Vice-Chancellor said NOUN remained firm in its commitment to established academic processes, best practices and quality standards, adding that peer review, which he described as one of the hallmarks of a universal university, remained an integral part of the institution’s academic practice.
He urged facilitators participating in the workshop to regard their engagement with NOUN as a strategic partnership and to ensure that examination questions adequately reflect the intended learning outcomes of the courses.
“Our course materials are our Bible, and question setting must be guided by them. The acceptance of examination questions is premised on their ability to pass the test of moderation,” he said.
Prof. Uduma also charged the facilitators to maintain strict confidentiality in the examination process, warning them against disclosing examination questions to friends, family members, colleagues or any other unauthorised persons.
He further underscored the importance of appropriateness and precision in examination question setting, noting that NOUN resource persons had provided participants with guidance on effective methods of developing quality examination questions.
The first day of the workshop focused on question setting for the Faculties of Management Sciences, Arts and Agricultural Sciences, with sessions for other faculties scheduled to follow.
Among those present at the workshop were the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Uduma Oji Uduma; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Prof. Chiedu Mafiana; Director, Directorate of Examinations and Assessment (DEA), Prof. U.S.A. Osuji; Deputy Director, DEA, Dr Nnenna Nancy Chukwuma; NOUN Resource Person, Dr Oni Leah Olubunmi; and Director, Enugu Study Centre, Prof. Loveth Ekwueme.
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