UNN To Graduate11,496 Today

The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) holds its 41st Convocation ceremony  today and Saturday where it would confer a total of 11,496 Degrees and Diplomas, with 10,243 graduands receiving first degrees, while 1,253 recipients will go home  with  higher degrees of the University.

Disclosing this at a news briefing at the Enugu Campus of the University, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Bartho N. Okolo, said that 94 of the graduands would receive First Class Honours, 2,305 Second Class Honours Upper Division, 1,593 Third Class Honours, while 858 persons would go home with certificates and diplomas.

The VC said 170 would graduate with doctorate degrees, 892 with Masters Degrees and 191 with post graduate diplomas, and expressed happiness that this year’s figure represents a 10 per cent increase over the last year’s graduation figure.

According to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo is expected to give the Convocation lecture with the theme, Education and National Development.

Prof Okolo noted that UNN was making significant progress in its avowed “ambition to become a truly 21st century university that would enjoy international recognition”, adding that  the institution now has collaborations and linkages with universities in every continent of the world, while its ranking among world universities and locally has continued to improve.

The UNN Vice Chancellor recalled, “In May 2011, the Executive Congress of UNESCO adopted our biotechnology centre and upgraded it to a UNESCO category 11 Biotechnology Institute- the only one of its kind in the whole of Africa. This feat was achieved after a keen competition that involved proposals, presentations and defence by universities from other African countries.”

Okolo said University Management was also devoting considerable resources to developing infrastructure to meet the increasing demands on the institution, expressing gratitude to various benefactors who had endowed programmes or sponsored the provision of facilities.

These, he said, included the Central Bank of Nigeria which is sponsoring an N1.6b Institute for Financial and Capital Market Studies, and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria whose $100m Shell-UNN Centre for Environmental Management and Control is nearing completion.

The VC remarked that UNN has built an International Scholars Village “dedicated to the accommodation of visiting researchers” and has commenced work on the construction of six new buildings for Personnel Services, Economics, Data Centre, an Administration Complex in the Enugu campus and Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.