By Felix Khanoba
The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Prof. Muhammed Akanbi, says it is pointless for universities’ first class graduates to stay without having any job.
The highly- cerebral Vice Chancellor said KWASU has made it a norm to produce individuals that are readily engaged in one job or the other before and after graduation.
Prof. Akanbi, who is one of the youngest Vice Chancellors in the country, stated this in a chat with newsmen, when he led the management team of the institution in a working visit to some select government agencies in Abuja to mobilise support for the University.
He said KWASU would soon roll out academic programmes that ensure all its students are exposed to state-of-the-art skills in computing and at the same time understand at least one foreign language to prepare them for the 21st century’s challenges.
The former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) said: “We will encourage students to hold all those certificates. It does not make any sense if you are a first class student and you are looking for a job. First class in any programme.”
On grooming the University’s students to be self-reliant instead of job seekers after graduation, Prof. Akanbi said KWASU, renowned for its entrepreneurial prowess, has a programme that makes it mandatory for every student to own a business.
“You will see students engage in things like making face masks, face shields, hand sanitizers, some are into tailoring, some are into carpentry, some are into what I call mechanical automobile repair and things like that.
“I have just been reminded that in the past, the CAC has given awards to our students because we are talking of every year almost 2,000 students registering with the CAC because when you come in, it is expected that it is not going to be only a classroom thing,” the VC said.
Speaking further, Prof. Akanbi, who assumed office as VC on 1st April, 2020, expressed his readiness to reposition the University for better performance.
“My plan is to move KWASU to a lofty height better than I found it, and to achieve this broad mandate, I intend to one; ensure a conducive learning environment. I also intend to pursue quality-based research.
“One of the things we want to encourage is that research should not just be for research sake, we don’t want our research work to end up on the shelves. Our research would be geared towards finding solutions to contemporary challenges,” Prof. Akanbi said.
