The Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Uduma Oji Uduma, has reaffirmed the university’s commitment to the ethical and responsible integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into teaching, learning, research and administration, stressing that the technology should enhance human expertise rather than replace it.
Prof. Uduma stated this on Friday, October 16, 2026, at the opening of a two-day workshop on the practical application of Generative AI in teaching, learning, research and student support, organised by the university’s Directorate of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in collaboration with Google Africa for Education.
Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Technology, Innovation and Research, Prof. Christine Ofulue, the Vice-Chancellor said AI was reshaping higher education globally, creating new opportunities for academic delivery, research and institutional administration.
He maintained that universities must embrace emerging technologies while ensuring their responsible application in academic and administrative activities.
“The digital world has come to stay, and the cat is out of the bag already.
Nobody is going to catch it. What we can do is ensure that we explore how emerging technologies are transforming the way we teach, the way our learners learn, how we conduct research and support scholarship generally,” he said.
On ethical use, Prof. Uduma disclosed that NOUN had developed a comprehensive AI policy following a series of workshops organised in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
He explained that the policy provides guidance for the application of AI across the university’s academic and administrative operations and is regularly reviewed to ensure its continued relevance and responsiveness to emerging developments.
The workshop was attended by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Prof. Shehu Usman Adamu; deans, directors and other university officials.
Speaking at the event, Google for Education’s Higher Education Lead for West and Central Africa, Mr. Emmanuel Adeniyi, reinforced the importance of keeping human expertise at the centre of AI adoption.
“Whatever technology we develop, or not, it is never meant to replace human expertise. What we are presenting today is Gemini for Education—an AI that was particularly built with learning science in mind. It is multimodal and designed specifically with academia in mind,” he said.
Group photograph at the end of the event
Adeniyi noted that NOUN had maintained a partnership with Google for several years, although much of the collaboration had received limited visibility. He said the growing influence of AI in education made stronger collaboration between technology providers and educators increasingly important.
Earlier, the Director of DICT, Dr. Francis Osang, said Generative AI was transforming how knowledge was generated, curated, delivered and consumed, highlighting Google’s Gemini AI as a tool with multimodal capabilities for working with text, code, images, audio and structured data.
He said NOUN, as Nigeria’s premier open and distance learning institution, must remain at the forefront of technology-driven education, particularly given its expanding student population and nationwide reach.
According to him, more than 160,000 students had registered for the 2026_2 semester, with the university operating through more than 125 study centres across the country.
“Our goal at the end of this workshop is simple: every faculty member should leave equipped with practical skill sets to integrate Gemini AI into their academic workflows immediately,” Osang said.
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