GETTING A UNIVERSITY DEGREE ONLINE

Bright and ambitious students should not be deprived of the opportunity to actualize and consummate their higher educational goals on account of limited number of universities and inadequate facilities in existing universities in their countries of origin. The age in which we are is the Information Communication Technology (ICT) age. The world has become a global village. With the internet, students can enroll in the best universities in the world and receive lectures and instructional materials on the net, write their examinations, do their research projects (the internet provides even better facilities for research) and graduate with very good degrees just like students who went to the off-line universities.

I know of many respected persons and leaders in our society who in the 50s and 60s got enviable university degrees through correspondence studies. Some read and obtained the Law degree of the University of London right from Nigeria and graduated in flying colours, while others got the University of London degree in History. Scores of other people had by means of correspondence courses obtained the professional certificates in Accounting, Marketing, Institute of Bankers, Institute of Purchasing and Supplies diploma certificates, and so on, which placed them in high economic pedestal of the country at the time.

Today, the internet has made distant learning easier and much more pleasurable to engage in as students can interact with their lecturers by e-mail and feedbacks received on areas of ambiguity that require further clarifications. Besides visual tutorials, students can download lecture materials in form of e-book or audio. Video CDs can also be received as a supplement by mail which can be rewound or played back as many times as possible for better assimilation of the lecturers’ instructions.

With distant learning made possible through the internet, why would good students be incarcerated into half or lack of education or even outright ignorance because they cannot see beyond their environment to behold opportunities inherent in the global world? Now that you know, you will be in a position to look up the profiles of world acclaimed universities or colleges, all of which offer online degrees, to choose the ones that best meet your needs.

WORLD RENOWNED UNIVERSITIES OFFER

The first time a friend mentioned online degree programmes, my immediate impression and consequent reaction was that of disapproval rather than approval, discontent rather than recognition and disenchantment rather than excitement. The thought, to me, conjured a feeling reminiscent of the old Rapid Results College or the Exam Success Correspondence courses which merely prepared private candidates for the external General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary and Advanced Levels. At the end, candidates were left on their own.

The online degree programme is different as it has such a personal touch and is effective as much as off line university education would be. I was pleasantly surprised after investigation, to see a retinue of big names in university education offering online degree programmes. I am talking about world class universities renowned for graduating thousands of men and women who have made their marks in various fields of endeavour. This emphasizes the seriousness of this programme, its worth and equal comparison with off-line education programme.

How does it sound to you if you get to know that educational institutions like the University of Liverpool, the University of London, the University of Phoenix, Capella University, University of Illinois, to name but a few, offer online degree programmes as much as they run off-line conventional university education programmes? These are world acclaimed universities which degrees are held in high esteem and indeed the dream of any academically conscious student.

These are world recognized university degrees, the carvings for which local, and indeed international students leave the shores of their countries for the United Kingdom or the United States of America or other parts of the world, in search of the ‘golden flees’. This, my friend, is what you can get at your own pace and convenience in the comfort of you home, thanks to the inventors of the internet.

YOU CAN GET UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Do you know that over 1 million eligible secondary or high school leavers sit for the University Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations annually for entry into universities in Nigeria alone? Statistics show that less than 30 per cent of this number eventually gain admission to read various courses in the few available universities. What then happens to the remaining 70 per cent of candidates who for each successive year, fail to secure admission into the universities? Some, of course, due to their resilience, decide to re-sit the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination the following year, and almost invariably probably end up not being admitted, while others settle for the polytechnic, nursing or computer data processing education. Yet a greater number of these candidates eventually get frustrated and give up on their pursuit of higher education and thus, end up enrolling as apprentices in various trades to train as carpenters, seamstresses, mechanics, electricians, motor drivers, etc. Others become shop attendants, retail traders, hair dressers, retailers of GSM recharge cards, and so on.

While I concede the argument that some of the candidates are not university materials, a good number of them really are, and will certainly do very well if given the opportunity to get into the university to study courses of their choice. The truth is that there is limited number of universities in the country to absorb the large number of youths graduating from the high school every year, who are seeking university education. Even the existing universities lack the capacity and adequate facilities in terms of lecture halls, libraries, adequate number of academic staff to match the teacher/student ratio as prescribed by the National Universities Commission, hostel accommodation, among others.

We believe that the future and prospects of academically inclined candidates should not be jeopardized under the above enumerated institutional problems. There is, however, alternative to attaining the same goal and that is online university education programme.