From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) will confer honorary doctorate degrees on Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and three other distinguished personalities as it graduates 12,895 students, including 168 First Class graduates, during its 55th Convocation Ceremony.
Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, disclosed this on Wednesday during a press briefing to herald the week-long convocation activities, describing the event as a celebration of academic excellence and the institution’s ongoing renewal.
He said the convocation would witness the award of honorary doctorate degrees to Senator Oluremi Tinubu, High Chief Williams Agbo, Arc. Dr. Kaycee Kelechi Orji and Dr. William Franklyn Richardson for their outstanding contributions to humanity and national development.
According to him, the university will also confer the title of Professor Emeritus on two distinguished scholars, Prof. Peter-Jazzy Ezeh and Prof. Boniface Obinna Okere.
Ortuanya said a total of 12,895 graduands would receive certificates during the ceremony, with 10,641 students earning first degrees and diplomas, including 168 First Class honours graduates, while 2,944 postgraduate students would be awarded higher degrees.
“This year’s convocation celebrates a harvest of 12,895 graduands. Of these, 10,641 will receive first degrees and diplomas, including 168 First Class honours graduates whose exceptional achievements testify to the enduring culture of academic excellence that defines this university.”
He added that 1,390 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, 1,340 Master’s degrees and 214 Postgraduate Diplomas would also be awarded.
The Vice-Chancellor announced that Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, would deliver the 55th Convocation Lecture on Thursday, July 23, under the chairmanship of former Vice-Chancellor of UNN and current Vice-Chancellor of the University on the Niger, Prof. Osita Nebo.
Beyond the convocation, Ortuanya said the university had embarked on an ambitious programme to reposition itself as a globally competitive institution through infrastructure renewal, academic reforms, digital transformation and international partnerships.
Reflecting on his first 11 months in office, he said the administration had chosen to confront decades of infrastructural decay rather than “romanticise” the challenges facing the institution.
“We resolved from the very first day that we would neither romanticise our challenges nor become prisoners of them. We resolved instead to confront them honestly, guided by the conviction that every genuine renaissance begins with the courage to acknowledge what must be rebuilt.”
He described the transformation agenda as “the renaissance of the mind and the rebuilding of the Lion’s Den.”
According to him, the university has reconstructed most internal roads, commenced the rehabilitation of major hostels, resumed work on the long-abandoned Senate Building, upgraded facilities at the College of Medicine, restored green areas and embarked on the digitalisation of academic and administrative processes.
The Vice-Chancellor also announced significant academic milestones, including an increase in the admission quota for Medicine from 180 to 400 students and Dentistry from 15 to 60, following successful accreditation by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
He added that the National Universities Commission had approved the unbundling of the Department of Mass Communication into five specialised degree programmes, while four new programmes—Agribusiness, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Industrial Arts, and Criminology and Security Studies—received full accreditation.
On staff welfare, Ortuanya disclosed that 1,984 staff members had been promoted within the last 11 months, including 25 academics elevated to the rank of Professor, while salaries and earned allowances had continued to be paid promptly.
He said UNN had also expanded its global footprint through partnerships with institutions in Sweden, Taiwan, China, Belarus, the United States and South Africa, alongside research collaborations and student exchange programmes.
The Vice-Chancellor reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to restoring the university to its place among Africa’s leading higher institutions.
“Our ambition remains clear—to build a university that will not merely compete with the best in Africa but stand confidently among the world’s most respected institutions of higher learning.”
He called on alumni, development partners, governments and friends of the university to support the institution’s ongoing transformation.
“The rebuilding of the Lion’s Den is a shared covenant. It is a summons to our alumni, an invitation to our development partners and a call to every Nigerian who believes that education remains the most enduring investment any nation can make.”
The 55th Convocation Ceremony will climax on Saturday, July 25, with the award of higher degrees, honorary doctorates and emeritus professorships.
(The Sun)