30th January, 2017
Twelve years it was established, the Plateau State University (PLASU) is to graduate a total of 344 graduands in its first convocation slated for Saturday, Feb. 4.
Its Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Doknan Sheni, in a pre-convocation press briefing held in Bokkos on Monday, said that the figure composed of two graduating sets.
According to him, three students are graduating with first class degrees, while many have bagged second class upper degrees.
He said that management was “very excited” over the reality of the convocation “after many setbacks”, and thanked Governor Simon Lalong for the feat.
“The two sets had 644 students, but 300 students have one issue or the other and would not be convocating along others,’’ he said.
He said that three persons – General Yakubu Gowon, Prof. Julius Okoje and the Oba Jimoh Oyewumi, the Soun of Ogbomosho, would receive Honorary Degrees at the convocation.
“We will also recognise and honour some funding fathers and honour them in our own small way,’’ he said.
The VC said that efforts were on toward boosting the quality of lecturers, and revealed that 64 of them had been sent out to undertake Masters and PhD programmes in various countries.
“Two, out of the 24, who left in 2013, have returned to boost our staff strength; we expect more before the end of the year.’’
Sheni said that the university’s major problem was funding, and urged corporate bodies and individuals to help its quest for quality education.
He also lamented that many quality applicants had no space because of the institution’s low admitting capacity, and called on Plateau residents to establish more universities.
“Ogun state has 18 universities, but Plateau has only two. This is not good for us,’’ he said.