186 Students Bag First Class Degrees In UI
No fewer than 186 students out of the 5,629 that graduated in the University of Ibadan with various qualifications from 15 faculties of the University bagged the first class.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, while speaking at the 2015/2016 convocation ceremony in Ibadan on Monday, said that the 5, 629 graduands were from the various academic programmes of the Institution’s 15 faculties, including the Distance Learning Centre and Affiliated Institutions.
For the first time since its inception 69 years ago, a graduand, Ozibo Ozibo Ekele broke the jinx in the department of History by earning a First Class Honours with a Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate of 6.6 out of a maximum of 7.0.
The best graduating student for the 2015/2016 session, Daniel Kenechuku Nkemelu, from the department of Computer Science, also returned with the CPGA of 7.0 out of a maximum of 7.0.
Breaking down the grade levels of the graduating figures, Olayinka said that 186 bagged first class grades; 1,538 finished with Second Class Upper, 3,133 finished with Second Class Lower, 434 with third class, 81 finished with Pass while 257 were categorized as Unclassified.
He enjoined the graduands to be good ambassadors of the school, saying that they should impact positively on their world.
According to him, due to the strike action embarked upon by the academic and non academic staff, some final year students could not complete their programmes early enough for the convocation, hence the graduation of the 2015/2016 academic session only.
While noting that he is aware of the public stringent critic of the large number of First Class graduates from the University, the VC maintained that the institution still maintains a very stringent and competitive mechanism for undergraduate admission and as such, very proud of all her graduates.
He added that the highlight of the year’s convocation was that the institution produced the pioneering set of B.A Music graduates, comprising 12 students, one of whom earned a First Class Honours.
“Due to strike action embarked upon by the four staff unions, namely the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and student’s demonstration during the 2016/2017 academic session which caused multiple revisions to the academic calendar, our final year students could not complete their programmes early enough for the convocation.
“As a result, we are having convocation for graduands of the 2015/2016 academic session. A total of 5,629 candidates will be receiving their First degrees on Monday and Tuesday.
“I am aware that there have been, of recent, strident public criticism of the large number of First Class graduates from our universities. I hasten to add that we are exceedingly proud of all Ibadan graduates. We see this phenomenon from the strategic point of view of input-process-output.
“In specific terms, the University of Ibadan has arguably the most competitive mechanism for undergraduate admission in the country. Only one out of 16 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates who made the University of Ibadan First choice can secure admission here. Our admission process is transparent and merit driven while our faculties rank among the best in the country in terms of research productivity.
“Ibadan is for the best and brightest. This has been attested to consistently by the Times Higher Education World University rankings in which Ibadan is the only University in the country ranked among the topmost 801-1,000 universities in the world,” he added.
Giving a valedictory speech on behalf of other graduands, the overall best graduating student in the faculty of Law, Tolulope Ogunmodede, said hard work and prayer made him to achieve the feat.
He said although he faced challenges during his academic pursuit, he was focused on his priorities, urging his fellow graduands to generate ideas that could make them entrepreneurs and never to trade their integrity for anything evil.