National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) will on Saturday, 13th April, graduate over 22,175 students at its 13th convocation ceremony.
Briefing the newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Olufemi Peters, said 22 of the total number of undergraduates received first class degrees.
In his breakdown of the figure, he said the total number of undergraduates is 15,768 while postgraduate is 6,407.
The vice chancellor said, “This year, the total number of graduands that we have is 22,175 students across our various campuses.
“Of this number, 15,768 are for undergraduate degrees while 6,407 are for post graduate degrees.
The analysis of the undergraduate will be presented fully in my report when I address the convocation, but just to paraphrase, all the faculties have representation of undergraduates with the faculty of social sciences having the largest number of graduands.
“Of this undergraduates, we have 22 of them with first class, about 1,886 second class upper and about 8,427 students with second class lower and about 3,782 third class.
“For the postgraduates, we have postgraduate diplomas in various fields such as agriculture, art, education, management sciences and social sciences totalling 2,362 and for masters’ degrees, we have 4,039 will be graduating.
“I’m happy to report that we have 6 PhDs graduate which is an indication that the University is gradually moving towards establishing a more robust post graduate school,” he said.
Peters said there will be a convocation lecture on Friday, to be delivered by the vice Chancellor of Open University of Tanzania, Professor Elifas Bisanda.
He disclosed that two eminent Nigerians, Dr. Innocent Chukuwuma, a prominent Nigerian entrepreneur and founder of Innonso Motors and activist, Hajiya Hafsat Abdulwaheed who is the first female novelist in northern Nigeria would be conferred with an honorary doctorate degree (Honoris Causa).
Peters also said the university has rolled out its study centres from the initial 17 to 120 centres spread across the country, noting that the institution has surmounted most of the challenges it faced in the past.
On the issue of NOUN law students and the Council of Legal Education, he said the University is engaging with the Council, disclosing that it is set to commence the building of the Faculty of Law this year as part of the engagement.