Nigerian House of Representatives intervenes in NOUN law graduate admission dispute

The Nigerian House of Representatives has intervened in a long-standing dispute preventing over 5,000 law graduates from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) from entering the Nigerian Law School for vocational training.

The impasse follows a petition from the Backlog of Law Graduates of NOUN, who argue that despite completing their Bachelor of Laws degrees, they are professionally stranded because they cannot qualify for the Nigerian Bar. The House Committee on Public Petitions has summoned representatives from both NOUN and the Council of Legal Education (CLE) to explain the situation.

In previous communications, NOUN stated it suspended its LLB programme in 2015 after the CLE rejected its graduates. While the university maintains that many affected students were admitted prior to the suspension, the CLE has raised concerns regarding the delivery mode of the university’s law programme. Although the National Open University of Nigeria Act was amended in 2018 following similar agitations, the admission issue remains unresolved.