NOUN is The University for You

The National Open University of Nigeria is an ODL institution renowned for providing functional, flexible, accessible, cost-effective education adequate for flourishing in the 21st  century and beyond. Right from our first inception in July 1983, our mandate has remained to deliver university education at the doorstep of every interested  Nigerian. The founding president,  Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the first executive president of Nigeria, envisioned a university with the capacity to admit and meet the education and skill needs of citizens no matter their status and circumstances. This vision was predicated on the realization that  a sustainable democracy, functional economy,   happy  and prosperous   people,  all  depend  on knowledgeable citizens. Meeting the educational needs of such  citizens in a highly populous country like' Nigeria was beyond the capacity of Nigeria's conventional higher institutions.

Despite its suspension in 1984 by the Federal Military Government that succeded Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the resuscitation of NOUN in 2002 by the civilian regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, went side by side with the awakening of the vision that informed the initial establishment of the university. As a faithful trustee of the Nigerian people, NOUN leverages on Information and Computer Technologies to deliver  an education tailored  towards  the globalised  economy. The University offers  exceptional academic programmes  that  meet  the specific needs of all sectors of the global economy, in the Arts; Health; Law; Physical, Social, Agricultural and Management Sciences.
As an ODL institution, we are an equal opportunity university determined to meet the following objectives that necessitated the establishment of open and distance education in Nigeria:

• Provision of Education for All and promotion of lifelong learning
• Filling the gap created by the closure of outreaches/satellite campuses
• Cost effectiveness
• Improved economies of scale
• Flexibility of delivery system
• Maximum utilisation of academic personnel
• On the job teacher training
• Poverty eradication, vocational and lifelong education
• Provision of non-formal education
• Reaching the unreached
• Propagation of national orientation