No fewer than 26 students of the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Ondo State, have graduated with first class.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Olusegun Agagu, Prof Temi Ologunorisa, disclosed this on Monday while speaking with journalists on the activities lined up for the joint first convocation of the university.
According to the VC, the 26 first-class graduates were among the 982 students that had finished from the institution in five sessions.
Ologunorisa said, “The highlight of the convocation is the award of university first degrees to 982 graduands from five sets – 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 sessions.
“The breakdown shows that a total of 26 graduands made first class, 307 made second class (upper division), 488 in second class (lower division) and 161 in third class.”
Speaking on the number of first-class graduates, he explained that the school had a culture of standard, quality and hard work, and every one of their students worked hard to earn his or her marks.
He added that many of their graduates were performing excellently globally.
“The university is noted for a very high academic standard. Some of these graduands are already PhD holders from leading universities in the United States, U.K, Germany, South Africa, and Nigeria.
“One of our recent first-class graduates in chemistry, Miss Timilehin Adebisi, was admitted for PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, USA, without passing through a Master’s degree.”
The vice-chancellor also noted that in spite of various challenges facing the institution, the university was still thriving well and efforts were ongoing to transition the varsity from teaching university to research university as it had signed Memoranda of Understanding with many varsities across the world.
Ologunorisa commended the state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, and well-meaning Nigerians for lifting up the school from a moribund level.
He said, “In the next academic session, 2023/2024, the School of Basic Medical Sciences will take off. The school will run courses in BSc. Nursing and BSc. Public Health. Also the BSc, Applied Geology programmes will commence in the 2023/2024 academic session in the School of Earth Science.”
