By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
SALEM University, Lokoja is to graduate 499 students with 41 of them bagging First Class Honours Degree across its seven colleges at the 6th Combined Convocation ceremony of the University taking place this week.
Prof. Alewo Johnson Akubo, Vice Chancellor of the University who disclosed this at the Convocation Press Briefing on Monday in Lokoja described the Convocation Ceremony as epoch-making.
He said that a renowned academic, Sam Egwu, a Professor of Political Economy, as a convocation lecturer, was slated to deliver the convocation lecture at the Chapel of Peace.
“We have a total of 499 graduating students, across seven colleges including: College of Management and Social Sciences, College of Natural and Applied Science, College of Humanity, College of Education, College of Information and Communication Technology, College of Law and the Post Graduate school.
“We have a total of 41 First Class across the the seven programmes in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 sets.
“We also have a new college that is about to hit the ground running now, and that is the College of Basic Medicine, Medical Science. We just got the approval from the National University’s Commission about two months ago”, he said.
The Vice Chancellor hinted that that University had successfully passed the accreditation process for all its programmes, achieving full accreditation status.
Prof. Akubo said that the institution recorded a notable achievement when its College of Law received full accreditation from the National Universities Commission (NUC), a significant accomplishment for a private university.
He stressed that the university had seen three sets of law graduates sent to the Nigerian Law School, with the first two batches already graduated and the third set in preparation.
He further said that the first set of law graduates has been officially called to Nigerian Bar, marking a milestone in producing qualified lawyers.
The Vice Chancellor noted that the University expanded its Postgraduate Programmes initially offering limited postgraduate programs, primarily an M.sc, MBA and Business Administration.
According to Prof. Akubo following a successful Resource Verification, Salem University has expanded its postgraduate offerings from Postgraduate Diplomas (PGD) to Doctorate levels (PhD) across the seven programs.
He revealed that there were plans in the pipeline to submit additional programmes for verification in the bid to expand and enhance their postgraduate education.
Akubo pointed out that students’ enrollment remained that major challenge facing the institution in spite of its successes and achievements saying, “students’ enrollment remains a persistent challenge for the university.”
This issue, according to him, underscores the need for ongoing efforts to attract and retain students in order to sustain and build upon the university’s achievements. (Ends)