The National Universities Commission (NUC) has suspended the new intake of students seeking to study law at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
This is coming following the move by the Council on Legal Education (CLE) preventing the institution’s law graduates from getting into the Nigerian Law School, with the claim that the teaching and study of law cannot be done by correspondence.
This was disclosed by the executive secretary of the NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, during an interactive session with newsmen on Thurdsay, July 16.
The NUC maintained that it had approved the study of law at the university, but will have to suspend the programme until the current crisis is resolved.
The NUC said: “This matter is being addressed because it is between us, CLE and the university.
“What we have done in the interim is stop new intake into that programme so that they do not have a backlog; we are addressing the issue.
“I must say that the law programme in National Open University (NOUN) was approved by the NUC; it is our responsibility.
“When CLE came up with the idea of no part time law, NOUN did not consider law a part time programme by their mode; so they did not stop the programme.”
Professor Okorie added that the institution’s law programme is not seen as part time while also urging the council to admit NOUN’s law graduates and approve a quota for the institution in terms of students they can admit to law school.