According to reports from NAN, the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) at its 15th to 20th combined convocation ceremony awarded 25,878 Students degrees including the likes of the former Vice-President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who were awarded honorary degrees.
In his speech, the Visitor, President Muhammadu Buhari, congratulated the Governing Council, Senate, Management and staff of UniAbuja for recording progress in achieving the objective for which it was set up.
Represented by Hajiya Hindattu Abdullahi, the Director, Tertiary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Buhari enjoined the institution to take research seriously as it was key to economic development.
He said it was pertinent to emphasise on the quality of teaching and research in Nigeria’s universities as it affected the quality of graduates from our universities.
“I therefore urge Nigerian universities to ensure that the quality of the graduates produced compares with graduates produced from other universities globally.
“Research should not be relegated to the background in our universities; rather universities should ensure that the education impacted is strongly influenced by research,” he said.
On his part, UniAbuja’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Michael Adikwu, said that the graduands had brought honour to the institution by distinguishing themselves in various fields of study.
“They comprise 20,461 undergraduate students and 4,261 postgraduate students spanning the 2009/2010 to 2014/2015 sessions.
“Eight undergraduate student graduands bagged first class honours; 2,324 bagged second class upper division; 11,180 bagged second class lower division; 6,647 bagged third class while 836 bagged pass.
“Of the total of 4,261 postgraduate graduands, 331 are graduating with Doctorate degrees, 2,233 with Masters’ degree and a total of 1,697 are Postgraduate Diploma graduands.”