By ADAH SUNDAY, Abuja
The Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) on Saturday the 27th of May, 2023 held its seventh (7th) convocation ceremony during which it graduated a total of 7,661 undergraduate and postgraduate graduands.
They were drawn from eight (8) faculties, namely Faculty of Administration, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Environmental Science Faculty of Law, Faculty of Natural and Applied, and Faculty of Social Sciences as well Institute of Education and Centre for Continuous Studies of the institution.
Presenting the graduating students in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Suleiman Bala Mohammed, explained that “For the undergraduate programme, a total of 5,984 graduands “were found worthy in both character and learning to be awarded first degree in various disciplines for which they were trained in the 2020/2021 academic session”.
The breakdown shows that 33 were graduated with First Class; 1,598, with Second Class Upper; 3,906, with Second Class Lower; and 447, with Third Class.
“For the postgraduate programmes” he said, “a total of 1, 617 graduands were found worthy both character and leaning to be awarded various postgraduate,” giving the breakdown as: 134 graduating with PhD; 633, with Academic Masters, 357, with Professional Masters; and 553, Postgraduate Diploma.
Giving an account of the academic development strides of the University to date, the VC said, “In an effort to improve the quality and global competitiveness of the academic programmmes, the University which, according to him has 67 undergraduate programmes spread over 54 departments, 8 faculties with a School of Postgraduate Studies that run several programmes, in partnership with the National Universities Commission (NUC) is currently undertaking a general curriculum review exercise for all undergraduate programmes.
“Through the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS), new skills, competences and local content are being incorporated.The University also has 26 Senate approved Directorates, Centres and Institutes that have strong partnership and collaborations with organisations within and outside Nigeria,” he added, giving the total staff population figure of the institution as 1,527, and that of students as 40,728.
In the area of physical infrastructure development, the grand academic boss of the University said through interventions from Presidential Needs Assessment, TETFund, the state government, corporate entities and public-spirited individuals, the Nasarawa State University had witnessed tremendous development in physical infrastructure and facilities, citing examples top among which is a befitting Senate Building built, furnished and commissioned through the TETFund Special High Impact Project.
The Vice Chancellor also highlighted the challenges being faced by the institution, particularly that of funding which he said had led to shortage of academic staff, teaching and learning infrastructure among others.
He said, “Your Excellences, Royal Highnesses, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, in spite of our modest achievements, the gap analysis of my administration’s Action Plan (20192024) revealed that there are still grounds for us to cover and needs that are yet to be met, especially with increasing need for access to quality education by Nasarawa State indigenes and Nigerians.
“We can do better with increased funding, particularly for us to reach the 21 Century and world-class University standard in the world. We are yet to get to the promised land, so we use this medium to solicit the support of the federal government, state government, International Organisations, and public-spirited individuals here to help us in our efforts to raise the standard and quality of teaching and learning of the University.”