WITH about 350, 000 admission capacity, it is very clear that the 120 federal, state and private universities in the country cannot solve the problem of students' enrolment at present. Over 1.6 million candidates sought admission to various universities last year with about 350, 000 securing the entrance.As a matter of fact, 99, 000 out of the 1.6 million had preferred to study at University of Lagos but the institution had space for 9, 000. Perhaps the candidates would have turned to private varsities, their poor financial background would not allow. Some would have jumped into polytechnics but the BSc/HND dichotomy has been an unresolved issue. At present, the only alternative is the Open Distance Learning, which the National Open University, NOUN had pioneered but with numerous teething problems, which include lack of course materials and shortage of study centres. In less than eight years, over 75, 000 students had enrolled in NOUN with the latest 13, 794 that matriculated about two weeks ago. Though the target of the institution is 500, 000 in the next five years, the dwindling enrolment at NOUN due to paucity of fund may defer the objective.No doubt, the future of university education lies in ODL going by the new collaboration of the National Universities Commission, British Council and Schulportal Technologies to drive some intitutions on dual mode across the country.The institutions include, the University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Maiduguri, University of Abuja and National Open University.The objective is to bring experts from reputable open universities in the United Kingdom to train Nigeria academics on how to write course materials for its ODL system. Last Tuesday, the writing of course materials began with e-learning workshop at the University of Lagos where hundreds of lecturers gathered to create a new model on how students would be taught in an open system.One of the instructors, Dr. Kerry Murphy who is the Director of Research at the Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom told Features Tribune that Open Distance Learning is the appropriate way to solve the problem of university education.According to him, ODL has been existing in England for over 40 years and it was created when the universities in the United Kingdom could only give admission to five per cent of the candidates who sought admission. He explained that the workshop in Nigeria had borne out of the discussion between his university and the National Universities Commission to develop robust course materials for the ODL in Nigeria.To him, there is a lot of opportunity in Open Distance Learning if only the country is ready to develop a good platform for it. 'My university is involved to develop a course material in such a way that the thinking of the students and the lecturers will be changed. It will be presented in a way to make the study engaging and create a new way of thinking,' he said.For Professor Funke Lawal, a curriculum expert and the Director of Distance Learning Institute, University ofLagos, there is the need to bring in expert to improve the standard of the country educational system.According to her, the country needs experts to improve the quality of course materials. 'That is why it had involved the United Kingdom who has been in the system for years. This is collaboration between the British Council and NUC,' she said.Lawal posited that the country lacked the technicality to run open university system and that the involvement of expertise for the purpose of developing quality course material would go a long way in building solid foundation for distance education.'We need to be trained on the pedagogue of Distance Learning to meet the world standard. We need to improve on the quality of our writing before we can expose our materials to the world. We just need to up our standard,' she said.The professor stated that the course material would task the imagination and creativity of the students and improve the readability of their writings.Currently, the UNILAG Distance Learning Institute parades 12, 000 students who are currently studying using conventional approach but Lawal said that her target was to face out the face-to-face idea in one year. According to her, the plan of the institute is to create a model in the form of e-learning where thousands of students will study without necessarily seeing their lecturers. 'Though, there will be learning centres where students can meet their lecturers for tutorials, it will be totally different from the conventional university system,' she noted. To make this work the Schulportals Technologies had developed software for a piloting programme for the six universities.Speaking, the Managing Director, Schulportals, Mr. Julius Momoh said that the plan of the organisation was to increase the enrolment of the six dual modal universities to 50, 000 each through e-learning technology.According to him, this will be done through the creation of Distance Learning Web World Service where students can log in to interact with their lecturers and also get access to their course material without stress.At present, Momoh said that about 1000 lecturers were being trained on the technology to make their teaching online.
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