Ten students have bagged First class degrees at the fourth convocation of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA).
No fewer than 5,503 students participated in the convocation held for the 2010 and 2011 sets. Four persons were conferred with honorary degrees.
The convocation took off with a lecture delivered in Yoruba by the renowned author, Prof Akinwunmi Ishola. The lecture was held in the expansive multipurpose hall.
In his address, the institution’s Visitor, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State described beneficiaries of the honorary degrees as worthy citizens of the country.
He promised the First Class graduates immediate employment in the civil service.
On the achievements of his administration, Mimiko said: “As a government, we have taken the challenge of reviewing our educational policies and instituting programmes with a view to rescuing our society from its comatose state. We also address unemployment, extreme poverty, crime and insecurity challenges.”
He praised the school’s management for constantly reviewing its curriculum and establishing academic centres to produce self-reliant graduates that would meet the needs of the society. He urged the school to ensure that sustainable structures were put in place to fasten the realisation of a 21st century university.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Femi Mimiko, said the ceremony was an opportunity to appraise how far the university has kept faith with its mission and vision.
“The scheme has also helped us to stay focused, improve on our operations and delivery capacity in all respects and enable us to attract positive attention in the Nigerian educational landscape. The convocation is aimed at delivering sustainable progress even within the context of very difficult global environmental situation,” he added.
He said his administration would deepen the integrity of academic programmes, sharpen the effectiveness of internal operations and expand the parameters of the students support services and infrastructural landscape.He said: “We seek to hone the capacity of our staff, deepen our engagement with society and broaden the reach and breadth of our commitment to internationalisation with a view to making our university more relevant and competitive. All these we did in the context of a well-calibrated institutional reform programme, which focused on attainment of global best practices in higher education administration.”
The highpoint of the ceremony was the conferment of degrees on the graduands and the presentation of cash prizes ranging from N10,000 to N100,000 to the best among the students.
Retired Bishop of Akure Bolanle Gbonigi was honoured with the university’s Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) for being a fearless crusader of justice, public accountability and social development.
Other beneficiaries are Prof Toyin Falola, Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) for his generosity to the institution, and Maj-Gen Olufemi Olutoye (rtd), Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) for his commitment to the upliftment of Nigerian communities.
Before the ceremony, Mimiko commissioned six projects and pledged more support for the institution. The projects are the University Staff School, a guest house, gymnasium, the Vice-Chancellor’s lodge, a 500-capacity lecture theatre, a 300-capacity twin lecture theatre, U-block comprising five classrooms among others.
The governor said: “The interesting thing about your projects here is that they are delivered on schedule and the quality of work done is very impressive. For us as government, the investment we are making in this university is based on our fundamental belief that human capital is the most important variable in all endeavours.”
With a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.69, Mr Adu Oluwatayo, emerged the overall best graduating student. He graduated from Education Management in 2009. Also, Modupe Ogunleye emerged the best graduating student in 2010 with a CGPA of 4.62.
