The Vice Chancellor Nasarawa State University Keffi, Professor Suleiman Bala Mohammed, has described the academic profile and physical infrastructure of the institution as tremendous.
The VC attributed the development to interventions from the Presidential Needs Assessment, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Nasarawa state government, corporate entities and public-spirited individuals.
Speaking during the university’s 7th convocation ceremony in Keffi on Saturday, Professor Mohammed specifically applauded the executive governor of the state, who is also the Visitor to Nasarawa States University, Engineer Abdullahi A. Sule, for his tremendous contributions to the development of the education sector in the state.
He said Governor Sule allocates over 30 per cent in the state’s annual budget, over and above the UNESCO recommended threshold of 20%. He described the governor as the architect of modern Nasarawa State University by virtue of his immense contributions to its growth and development.
According to the VC, the university also has 26 Senate approved Directorates, Centres and Institutes that have strong partnership and collaboration with organisations within and outside Nigeria.
He said, “We now have a partnership with Lincoln University, Malaysia to run various degree programmes. We are almost concluding the process with NUC to commence the Open and Distance E-learning (ODeL) programme in the university.”
The university conferred honourary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) on President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, and Professor Brunon Holyst of Poland, also with the Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil,) for their immense contributions to humanity.
In all, 5,984 graduands were found worthy in both character and learning and were awarded first degree in various disciplines for which they were trained in the 2020/2021 academic session. He gave the breakdown as follows: First class 33, Second Class Upper 1,598, Second Class Lower 3,906 and Third Class 447, making a total of 5,984 graduands.
Professor Mohammed said a total of 1,677 got various postgraduate degrees, with the breakdown as follows: PhD 134, Academic Masters 633, Professional Masters 357, and Postgraduate Diploma 553.
He congratulated all the graduands and charged them to be good ambassadors anywhere they go.