The Centre for Distance Learning, Joseph Ayo Babalola University (CDL JABU) was established in response to the yearning of a large number of people for a flexible mode of tertiary education, and to provide access to teeming Nigerians who currently, due to cost, do not have access to tertiary education.

As part of the desire to fulfill its mission of providing access to tertiary level education to people desirous of it, the Senate of Joseph Ayo Babalola University introduced a Part time programme in 2011, this was very successful and was heavily by persons from all over the Country.

The programme was however terminated due to interventions from the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the students were offered the option of converting to Full Time mode of study (non-residential).

The heavy subscription to the attempted part time programme and the subsequent willingness of majority of the Part Time students to convert to Full time non-residential mode of study demonstrated to the University Management the interest of a large number of people to benefit from the type of education that JABU provided.

The Nigerian Nation policy on Education affirms lifelong education, and provides that at any stage, after junior secondary education, an individual shall be able to choose between continuing fulltime studies, combining work with study, or embarking of full time employment without excluding the prospect of resuming studies later.

The demographic spread of those who subscribed to the attempted Part time programme and converted to Full time non-residential mode of study showed to the University Management that a large number of people interested in tertiary education desired a flexible mode of study that would enable them retain their jobs while acquiring higher education i.e. combine work with study.

It was also clear that a large number of people were interested in resuming studies after long breaks to engage in paid work but their demographic placement in terms of age makes it extremely difficult to engage in full time study.

The Management of JABU viewed this as a call to duty and came up with the idea of establishing distance learning mode of study to further provide access to tertiary education especially for these people who are desirous of life-long learning.

Hence as responsible corporate citizen, in February 2013, it approached the NUC with a letter of intent to embark on Distance Learning mode of delivering tertiary education to those who would have otherwise been denied.

The initiative was commended by the NUC in its response about a month later (March 2013), which detailed what the University was required to do. The University Management has since then taken steps towards establishing the Centre for Distance Learning as a prelude to embarking on the Open and Distance learning mode of education delivery. The ODL mode is intended to run alongside the face to face mode and at least measure up to the FTF mode in all aspects in terms of quality of education given.

Since the initial expression of intent to provide open and distance learning opportunity; JABU management has invested in infrastructures and human resource development to ensure that world class learning is delivered via the ODL.

The Centre for Distance Learning is located at a vantage place on the generally serene JABU Campus, away the FTF activities. It is housed in a magnificent state of the art building, which was graciously donated to the University by the Family of the University’s Registrar: Barrister Wale Aderibigbe.

The fully air-conditioned resource room contains 500 internet ready laptops as workstation, and multimedia projector enable for video streaming. The Centre also has two large tutorial rooms, a media room with a state of the art interactive board (smart board) for use by our facilitators and e-tutors.

The human resources available at the Center are capable, competent, fit and highly motivated to perform at superior level. Pursuant to the vision to be an attractive and preferred brand not just an option, the operational processes and procedures are constantly reviewed to ensure that we are competitive and in tandem with the changing ODL pedagogy.