The University of Lagos (UNILAG) will graduate 340 first-class students at its 54th convocation.
Speaking at a news conference to announce activities lined up for the ceremony in Akoka, Lagos, its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, noted that on 16 and 17 January, the university would be graduating 17,464 students of which 10,578 would receive first degrees, while 6,886 others would be honoured with the postgraduate degrees.
She said David Akanmu of the Faculty of Engineering had emerged as the overall best-graduating student, with a perfect score of 5.00 CGPA, while Ibrahim Quadri of the Faculty of Management Sciences, with a CGPA of 4.94, is the best-graduating student in Humanities.
Ogunsola said of the total number of graduating students, a total of 3,374, would be conferred with the Second Class Upper degrees, while 4,547 others would be in the Second Class lower division.
“We have 1,832 others graduating in the 3rd Class division, 188 with Pass and 250 others with unclassified degrees from the Faculties of Pharmacy, Basic and Clinical Sciences”, she said.
Speaking further, the VC explained that of the 6,886 postgraduate degrees, a total of 465 would be awarded postgraduate diplomas, 6,266 are graduating with Master’s, out of which 377 bagged distinctions.
“Most exciting is that 31 of the Master’s degree graduates are international students, all with MSc degrees, who were supported by World Bank grant through the African Centre of Excellence for Drug Research, Herbal Medicine Development and Regulatory Science (ACEDHERS).
“The centre Director, Dr Bola Ademilua, together with her team, worked extremely hard, to achieve this.
“This is the first time we will have such a harvest of international students at one convocation in the history of this university and this further reiterates and validates the aggressive internationalisation drive of this administration and previous administrations.
“This year too, 155 graduands will be awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in various disciplines. The overall best Ph.D. Thesis award for this year, which is also the best PhD in the Sciences, goes to Aminat Olawunmi Ige, with a Ph.D. in Mathematics.
“The best Ph.D. in the Humanities goes to Issa Akanji Afedokun, with a Ph.D. in Private and Property Law”, she said.
Ogunsola said the University of Lagos Business School would be graduating its first set of students as an autonomous school for the first time this year.
She said in repositioning the business school to be more globally competitive, management unbundled it from the School of Postgraduate Studies.
“So, it now has its own recognised certificate. A total of 62 students will be graduating from the Business School this year and the overall best graduating student is Abiola Oluyemisi Itakpe, with a CGPA of 4.84. She obtained the Master’s of Business Administration”, she said.
Ogunsola said no fewer than four visually challenged students would graduate.
Speaking further on the activities lined up for the ceremony, Ogunsola stated that there would be a special Jumat service on Friday, 12 January at the institution’s Central Mosque.
