At least 288 graduands of the 2022/2023 academic session of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) will tomorrow be conferred with first class honours degrees of the institution.
This is as it insisted that the recent allegation of admission racketeering against the institution, was baseless and lacked empirical evidence.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Charles Igwe, at a press conference in Enugu disclosed that of the 12,962 graduating students, 11,444 will receive first degrees with 67 receiving diplomas.
He added that 1,451 will also receive postgraduate degrees and their awards at the 51st convocation.
A further breakdown of the Bachelor’s degrees, according to Igwe, include 4,853 for 2nd class (upper division); 5,077 for 2nd class (lower division); 653 for Third class with seven graduates leaving with pass while 616 were unclassified.
He noted that the unclassified degrees are awarded to graduates of some courses, such as medicine, pharmacy and veterinary medicine which are not usually classified into first, second or third class.
“Similarly, a total of 67 diplomas will also be awarded at the convocation. The breakdown is as follows: 7 distinctions, 35 credits, 22 merits and three passes.”
The Senate recently discussed the allegations of admission racketeering brought by Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi.
Igwe said that what obtains is that because of the stiff competition for the University’s admission into most of the professional courses, those who were unable to make the cut-off marks resort to blackmail.
He stated that the allegation was far from the truth and negated the transparency pillar upon which the University of Nigeria stands.
He stressed that the university had always conducted its admissions transparently, complying strictly with the Federal Government’s established criteria of 45 percent merit, 35 percent catchment and 20 percent Educationally Less Developed States (ELDS).
The week-long event will feature the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Sonny S. T. Echono, who will deliver the convocation lecture titled: “University autonomy and the challenge of sustainable education funding in Nigeria.”
Credit: Daily Sun