BY FORTUNE OYEM
The management of the University of Benin says the institution will be graduating fourteen thousand and eighty three students out of which one hundred and ninety eight students bag first class degrees in various academic disciplines.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Edoba Omoregie stated this at the 51st and 55th Pre-Convocation and Founders Days News Briefing held at the University Senate hall , Ugbowo Benin City, Edo State.
He added that four thousand two hundred and seventeen students bagged a Second Class Upper, Seven hundred and twenty eight got a Second Class Lower, while five hundred and seventy eight bagged a Third Class degree.
The Uniben VC explained that the result was indicative of the seriousness with which staff and students were committed to ensuring that the institution continued to move forward with vigour.
“The wheel of progress is on course and moving steadily in the University of Benin. This administration is poised to deliver on its mandate of effective, practical teaching, sound learning, result-oriented research and impactful community service.”
He said, “This quantum leap represents over six hundred per cent increase from the figure of the last convocation which stood at two hundred and forty one graduands at the higher degree level.
He stressed that fifteen new approved programmes by the National Universities Commission (NUC) would commence in the 2025/2026 academic session.
Professor Omorogie announced that the University have achieved other great strides since his administration came on board added that five new faculties have been created while fifteen new programmes were approved by the National Universities Commission.
“This is the direct positive outcome of our efforts in the last over eleven months since the assumption of office as Vice Chancellor to upscale the postgraduate degree programmes offered by the University of Benin.
“The up-grading of the Postgraduate School to College of Postgraduate Studies is a strategic move at repositioning the University as an institution both for advanced academic training and an innovative capacity-building epicentre.”
He explained that since he assumed duty as the Vice Chancellor, some administrative changes have been effected by the establishment of a Directorate of examinations and Students’ records with the appointment of a professor of Engineering as Director.
“We have also instituted digitisation of students’ records to address the major concern of alumni members regarding the prompt processing of their requests for transcripts and confirmation of their academic and other records.
“We will not relent until we achieve one hundred per cent seamless operations in examinations and the students’ records system.
He lauded President Bola Tinubu for establishing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND and the initiative, he said, accelerates students’ access to funding for tertiary education.
“We must applaud President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for establishing NELFUND, and by so doing, significantly reducing the financial stress of students in the process of acquiring tertiary education. We encourage students and their parents to take full advantage of the federal government’s benevolence in instituting the fund.”
Prof. Omoregie noted that Nigeria’s Minister of Regional Development, Engineer Abubakar Momoh, would deliver the Founders’ Day lecture with the topic, “Reforms for a Shared Prosperity”.
The UNIBEN VC stressed that the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and Former Vice Chancellor of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Professor Eghosa Osaghae, would deliver the Convocation Lecture on the theme, “Making Our Universities Great”.
