Profile
Professor Olugbemiro Jegede is foundation Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria. He is the immediate past Secretary to the Kogi State Government and also the immediate past Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the Association of African Universities, a position that he assumed on December 1, 2010, after a successful tenure in Nigeria on a special assignment in Higher Education.
Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, at the invitation of the Federal Government of Nigeria to restart open and distance learning activities in Nigeria assumed position as the National Coordinator of the National Open and Distance Learning Programmes in 2001 and subsequently was appointed in 2003 as the founding and current Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
As Vice Chancellor of the fledgling institution, he concerned himself with activities and responsibilities associated with the establishment of the new institution. These include the development of the Blueprint, the university strategic plan, capacity building in ODL for Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region, course material development, admissions, hiring and training of all cadres of staffing for the young nationally funded university and forging partnership with renowned and well established distance teaching and open learning institutions and organisations across the world.
Prior to his special assignment in Nigeria, Professor Jegede served in various capacities in different parts of the world including being the Staff in charge of the M.Ed programme by ODL at the Curtin University of Technology Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Perth, Australia; founding Director, Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning, The Open University of Hong Kong; Foundation Head, Research & Evaluation Unit Distance Education Centre, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia; and Foundation Dean and Professor of Education; Head, Department of Education, Faculty of Education, The University of Abuja, Nigeria.
He has practiced as an ODL professional for the past two and a half decades with demonstrable expertise in the areas of Instructional Design, ODL Management, Course Materials development, Psycho-Social Environment and Learning with particular reference to the Socio-cultural influences, Teacher Preparation and Professional Development, Knowledge Engineering and Cognitive Science, Assessment and Evaluation of Learning, Information and Communication Technologies in Instructional Delivery and ODL Research. Professor Jegede, who is a chair Professor in both Science Education and Open and Distance Learning, obtained his B.Sc.Ed and M.Ed degrees at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and his Ph.D at the University College of Wales, Cardiff, UK.
He is a chartered biologist of the UK Institute of Biology and a recipient of several awards including the University of Southern Queensland Award for Excellence in Research (1995), the Fellowship of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (1996), The People State and Resource Development in Nigeria Merit Award (2002), and Kwame Nkrumah Africa Leadership Award for professional contribution to the development of Education in Africa (2004). Professor Jegede has published extensively in various internationally referred journals in both science education and ODL reflecting many areas of knowledge and practice including those listed above. He has served/ continues to serve as a member of the Advisory Board, Editorial Board or as Editor of several journals in Science Education, ODL and Learning and Instruction worldwide.
He is a member of the International Council for Distance Education and served as Chairman of its taskforce on research in 1995. He has served as Chair, Planning Committee, Association for Development in Education in Africa (ADEA) Ministerial Regional Meeting, July, 2004; Member, The International Programme Committee, The International Council for Open and Distance Education 20th World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education, Hong Kong, 3-5 June 2003; and he is a member of the Executive Board of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE).