21st March, 2018
Gbenro Adesina/ibadan
The Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, UI, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka has revealed that the institution would be graduating 139 First Class Graduands at this year’s convocation which is the 70th anniversary of the Premier University.
Olayinka in a statement said, “For 2016/2017 academic Session, a total of 139 of our final year students earned a First Class Honours degree. The Faculties of Science and Technology tied in the overall best position with 37 students in each of the Faculties finishing with First Class. Twenty one of our students in the Faculty of Law earned First Class; this is the best ever result by the Faculty since its establishment 38 years ago.
“The number of first class from other Faculties include Arts, 13, Agriculture, 8, The Social Sciences, 8, Education, 7, Renewable Natural Resources, 4, Public Health, 2, Basic Medical Sciences, 1, and Clinical Sciences, 1. Similarly, in the unclassified degree programmes, a number of students had distinction in various courses. These include 13 students in the Bachelor of Physiotherapy, 13 in Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and 18 with Bachelor of Pharmacy”.
According to him, the graduating students of the 2016/2017 Class were admitted into the University of Ibadan between 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 academic sessions, depending on the specific course of study, through a very rigorous and highly competitive Post-UTME.
He added that empirical and verifiable data available at the institution have shown convincingly that there has been a considerable improvement in the quality of students admitted into the University since the Post-UTME template was introduced during the 2005/2006 admission exercise.
Olayinka stated that the withdrawal rate at the end of the 100 level at the institution had dropped from an all-time high of 12 percent before the introduction of Post-UTME to less than two percent during the 2015/2016 session.
He noted, “Unfortunately, there was no Post-UTME for the candidates admitted during the 2016/2017 session. This has been largely responsible for the poor performance of our students. As can be observed, students in the science-based disciplines in particular did not perform too well, with a pass rate of just 85 percent. Also, some 328 students, representing 10.9 percent of the total, have been advised to withdraw from the University for their inability to meet the minimum condition approved by Senate.
“Moreover, another set, comprising 115 students were unable to meet faculty requirements and have been advised appropriately to apply for change of course. With the restoration of Post-UTME for the new intakes, we are optimistic for an improved performance for the new students due to enroll at the beginning of the 2017/2018 session”.
In an earlier statement, the Vice Chancellor said that the new academic session would commence on the 14th April 2018 saying, “Though orientation begins 16 April 2018, students will be expected to arrive on Saturday 14 April, 2018. The Orientation Programme for the new students and registration for courses will commence from Monday 16 till Friday 20 April 2018. Lectures will start on Monday 23 April 2018”.