By Felix Khanoba
No fewer than 22 students will graduate with First Class degrees from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on Saturday, April 13, 2024.
The Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Olufemi Peters, made this known on Monday in Abuja at a press conference to herald the 13th convocation ceremony of the university scheduled for Saturday.
Prof. Peters revealed that a total of 22,175 undergraduate and postgraduate students would be awarded various degree certificates at the event, out of which six would be graduating with Doctor of Philosophy certificates (PhDs).
His words: “This year, the total number of graduands that we have is 22,175 students across our various campuses.
“Of this number, 15,798 are for undergraduate degrees while 6,407 are for postgraduate degrees….. All the faculties have representation of undergraduates with the faculty of social sciences having the largest number of graduands.
“Out of this undergraduate, we have 22 of them with First Class, about 1,886 with Second Class Upper, about 8,427 with Second Class Lower, and about 3,782 with Third Class and a few pass.
“For the postgraduates, we have postgraduate diplomas in various fields like agriculture, art, education, management sciences, and social sciences, totaling 2,362, and for the masters, we have 4039 who will be graduating with masters degrees.
“I’m happy to report that we have six PhD graduates, which is an indication that the university is gradually moving towards establishing a more robust postgraduate school.”
On some of the activities lined up for the convocation, Prof. Peters said the investiture of the new Chancellor of NOUN, Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku’ Akpolokpolo Ewuare 11, will take place on Thursday.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for appointing the Benin monarch as Chancellor, Prof. Peters said the highly respected traditional ruler would also be confered with an honorary degree.
Speaking further, the Vice Chancellor said two eminent Nigerians; Innocent Chukwuma (Innoson) and Hajia Hafsatu Abdulwaheed, would be conferred with an honorary doctorate degrees.
He said while Chukwuma will get a Doctor of Business Administration for his enterprise and massive contribution to local content, Hafsatu will be awarded a Doctor of Letters for promoting girl child education and using literacy to break the cycle of poverty.
“These two awardees reflect the core value of NOUN, which is entrepreneur ingenuity and knowledge-based content creativity,” the VC said.
On the convocation lecture scheduled for Friday, Prof. Peters said the Vice Chancellor of the Open University of Tanzania (OUT), Prof. Elifas Bisanda, will deliver the lecture titled ‘Is western education still relevant for Africa?’
The NOUN VC also listed various achievements recorded by the university within the last year, which include the massive deployment of technology in the delivery of lectures in the 120 study centres across the country, among others.
