Prof. Abdalla Adamu, the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University in Nigeria (NOUN) has said the institution has admitted a total of 615 prisoners.
Adamu made the disclosure in an interview in Lagos.
He said that all the inmates were studying free as NOUN was responsible for payment of their fees up to PhD level.
The professor of science education said that it had been his joy to encourage prisoners to acquire education and be useful on re-integration into the society.
Adamu added that he was happy seeing people who were incarcerated and had no hope, with some of them on death row and life sentence, studying.
The vice-chancellor said that the inmates had a preference for studying Peace and Conflict Resolution as their major courses.
Adamu said that NOUN, established in 2002, also encouraged people living with disabilities to enrol in it.
“We don’t want a situation where people with so-called learning disabilities are separated from the society.
“If anybody with a learning disability wishes to enrol in NOUN, he is welcome.
“We do not have braille books but we have other items of technologies; even phones now have enhancement technologies that they can use but they have not been able to explore them.
“We are living in an inclusive world, we want these people to be part of the society because they live in the society; so, we integrate them as much as we can,’’ he said.
The vice-chancellor noted that the Federal Government had been supporting the institution, but said that NOUN needed more funds to do better. NAN