A university leader and vice-Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago Iwoye, Prof. Ganiyu Olatunde, has expressed concerns over the indiscriminate award of first-class degrees to graduates, by universities.
While clarifying that deserving students should not be denied such grades, the don insisted that graduates should be able to defend the certificates and degrees held by them.
Briefing the press on activities lined up for the 30th convocation ceremony of the institution, Prof. Ganiyu Olatunde said: “A situation where you have a university graduating a few hundreds of students and among them, over one hundred bag first-class degrees leaves room for probing questions. No one is saying that students who deserve first-class degrees should not be given. Hard work, dedication and commitment should be rewarded.
“However, the manner some universities go about placing students in that category should be checked. We are graduating 6,257 and only 55 are in the first-class category. We are very sure of our products and they can defend whatever certificate and degree they possess,” he stated.
The vice chancellor revealed the breakdown of 991 graduating students in the second class upper category, 2,738 in the second class lower level, 1,925 in the third class category, 217, pass category and 135 in the unclassified category, for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 sessions,
He added that 140 would bag postgraduate diplomas, 486 master’s degrees and 103 to get doctorate degrees.
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede is listed to deliver the convocation lecture titled “Your future is in your hands.”
OOU has recently developed the anti-COVID syrup.
“The syrup has been found to be very effective and we took it to the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, for the necessary scrutiny. Operational issues are the factors delaying a final decision on it,” Prof Olatunde explained.
