The Federal University Lokoja is to confer Bachelor degrees and postgraduate diplomas on 804 students at its fifth convocation ceremony slated this weekend with 14 students having First Class Honours.
While addressing newsmen on Monday at the Felele permanent site of the institution on the commencement of the fifth convocation ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Olayemi Akimwumi said within his nine months assumption of office, he has brought a lot of innovations and transformations to the institution that just clocked 10 years.
Akimwumi also disclosed that out of 804 graduands, 14th have First Class Honours, 18th Second Class Upper division, 4th Second Class Lower division, 95 with Third Class honours and 66 graduates with post-graduate diplomas.
He emphasised that his concerted and painstaking efforts along with his management team paid off recently when the university was ranked the 3rd position among the
12 new Federal Universities, 35th in the country 122nd in Sub-Sahara Africa, 221st in Africa and 5024th worldwide by the second edition of 2021 Web metrics Ranking, adding that a lot of improvements on the January ranking where federal University Lokoja was ranked the 7th among the 12 federal Universities, 78th in the country, 255th in sub-Saharan Africa, 396th in Africa and 10,604th worldwide.
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He pointed out that his goal is to become the best out of the 12 new universities and among the top 10 in the country.
On his achievements within the last nine months that he assumed office, he said he was able to carry out institutionalisation of academic traditions and ceremonies whereby six Professors have been able to deliver their inaugural lectures out of the two who had delivered since the establishment of the school 10 years ago.
Akimwumi equally said that in his bid to achieve physical development and expansion, the university has commenced academic activities to the permanent site at the Felele campus while stringent security measures have been carried out to secure the lives of students and staff at the permanent site.
He equally announced that the university request for the upward review of the students’ admission quota to the NUC and JAMB from 1,500 students per session has been increased to 4,000.
On security, Akimwumi explained that the management of the institution has engaged the service 60 hunters to complement the efforts of the police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in providing adequate security of life and property to the students and staff of the institution at Felele campus, adding that students will not be moved to the hostel until adequate security is provided.
“The management will not toy with the security of students and staff of the university. We have seen what happened just recently in some tertiary institutions in the country where Professor and their children were kidnapped in the campuses,” he said.
