About 22 students of the Achievers University, Owo, Ondo state, have bagged first class in its 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic sessions.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Tunji Ibiyemi, who disclosed this on Monday during a press conference to herald the 8th and 9th combined convocation of the university, said about 400 graduating students would be presented during the ceremony.
According to him, 217 of the students graduated with Second Class Honours (Upper Division), 130 students graduated Second Class Honours (Lower Division) while the remaining 31 students were in the Third Class Honours Division.
He disclosed that the National University Commission (NUC) has accredited and approved three additional programmes in M.Sc. Accounting, M.Sc/MBA Business Administration and M Sc. Computer Science for the university, saying the programmes would commence soon.
“At this convocation, the first set of postgraduate, totalling 48, will be presented for the award of Masters of Science in these three programmes,” he said.
He stated that four eminent personalities across the country would be awarded honorary degree awards during the convocation ceremony slated for Saturday, 8th November 2019.
He said as part of an effort to rank the institution as one of the best in Africa, the institution has established synergy with foreign universities by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with two foreign universities in the United States of America (USA) and Kenya for knowledge and faculty exchange.
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He maintained that the vision of the institution to become the best university in Africa necessitated the need for the partnership with successful universities in the world that could lift the school and help in achieving its goals.
Ibiyemi said that the MoU would impact development for the university and enhance the quality of education offered to its students.
He said: “We considered these universities for this collaboration for they have been doing well in some key areas that we are targeting and they can quickly pull us up very quickly.
“Within the ambit of this collaboration, our students have been offered a home status at these universities including 50 per cent fee rebate for any graduate of Achievers University who wants to do their postgraduate programmes.
“We have students that have gone there and our lecturers will be linked with theirs.
“This collaboration presents opportunities for joint research in areas of interest to both institutions, faculty exchanges students and much more.”
He explained that the university had embarked on massive infrastructural development, adding that an ultra-modern 810 bed-space hostel accommodation had just been completed.
Speaking, the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Dr Bode Ayorinde, said that the university had enough capacities but said the institution was under-subscribed.
“We have capacities that can cater for 10,000 students but we have an average of 2,000 students which means we are under-subscribed,” he said.
The founder, however, said the institution’s 12-point agenda would be achieved before the celebration of the 15th year anniversary of the school in 2023.
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