ADDRESS BY THE VICE CHANCELLOR, PROFESSOR A. IDOWU OLAYINKA, FAS AT THE SECOND CONGREGATION FOR THE AWARD OF CERTIFICATE, DIPLOMAS AND ADMISSION INTO FIRST DEGREE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN ON TUESDAY, 13 NOVEMBER, 2018.

The Commencement Keynote Speaker

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships)

Registrar

Bursar

University Librarian

Provosts of the College of Medicine and of the Postgraduate College

Deans of Faculties and of Students

Directors of Institutes and Centres

Heads of Departments

Members of Senate

Members of Congregation

President and members of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association

Members of the Students’ Representative Council

Honoured Graduands

Parents and Guardians of our Graduands

Gentlemen of the Press

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

I welcome you all to the second day of the week long ceremonies of the University of Ibadan for 2018. I am very happy to welcome parents and guardians, guests, well wishers and Alumni to this occasion, which is highly remarkable in the lives of the graduands. Your labour has not been in vain. It is my prayer that the joy, which this day has ushered in, will endure. I wish to commend and congratulate the graduands on the successful completion of their programme after passing through rigorous academic pursuit. When it is recalled that some of those who started the journey with you some three to seven years ago had dropped out for sundry reasons including poor academic performance, gross misconduct, sicknesses or death, one would readily agree that you deserve to celebrate your success. Indeed, the certificate of University of Ibadan is not easy to come by, however willing the person may be. It requires consistent hard work, commitment and diligence on consistent basis.

Today, the Ibadan certificate will be awarded to those of you who have been found worthy in character and in learning, hence your graduation. I have no doubt whatsoever that the graduands present here today have passed through the University and have also allowed the great University of Ibadan to pass through them.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, due to the nationwide strike embarked upon by the three Non teaching Staff Unions in Nigerian Universities namely: SSANU, NAAT and NASU during the 2017/2018 academic session, our final year students could not complete their programmes early enough for the convocation ceremonies. In view of this, we are, today having a convocation for graduands of the 2016/2017 academic session.

We are aware of the problem of access to tertiary education in this country. Every year, no less than One Million and Five Hundred Thousand candidates seek admission into the various tertiary institutions. On the other hand, the combined carrying capacity of all the 168 universities in the country is barely up to Five Hundred Thousand. The public universities are usually over subscribed on account of their reputation, age and free tuition policy of the Federal Government. Every year, the University of Ibadan receives no less than Sixty Thousand applications from those seeking to come here for undergraduate studies. Even if we assume that only about Twenty Five Thousand of these candidates are good university materials, we still have a crisis on our hands as we cannot admit more than Three Thousand and Five Hundred of these candidates. The logical question to ask is where would the rest go to?

We have over the years consistently adopted a two-pronged strategy to assisting our great country Nigeria in solving this problem.

Affiliated Institutions

The first is for suitably qualified candidates to study near their homes in recognized colleges and still earn a degree of the University of Ibadan. Institutions such as the then Tai Solarin College of Education, Ijebu-Ode and Rivers State College of Education, Port Harcourt have benefitted from this type of mentorship in the past. Happily they have since matured into autonomous universities in their own rights, namely Tai Solarin University of Education and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, respectively. I am sure both institutions are proud of their association with the University of Ibadan.

Currently, we provide quality full-time university education at a number of Colleges of Education such as Osun State College of Education, Ilesa; Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta; Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo; Federal College of Education, Okene, among others. In order to strengthen the administrative and academic processes in the interface between the University and these colleges, the Senate of the university in July 2017 approved the establishment of a Directorate of Affiliated Institutions. The Pioneer Director is Professor M. K. Akinsola, a much respected Professor of Mathematics Education and the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Education, He has since been providing effective leadership to his Directorate. Admission into our Affiliated Institutions is done by our Admissions Office (Undergraduate) while teaching and examinations are moderated by our lecturers from the Faculty of Education.

We should all remember that the University of Ibadan itself started as a College of the University of London, in special relationship. We are very proud of our efforts in respect of the Affiliated Institutions.

Open Distance Education

Secondly, apart from the conventional face to face teaching, the University of Ibadan provides access to education for those who can study at home, while on paid job, through the Distance Learning Centre (ODL) which our highly regarded Distance Learning platform enables.

The Score Card of UIDLC has been unprecedented in the last one year. The Centre has been reinvigorated and going through visible repositioning.

National Universities Commission (NUC) Validation and Revalidation

The University of Ibadan in the month of May 2018 received a 20-person National Universities Commission (NUC) team which came for a validation and revalidation exercise.

The Centre lost nineteen (19) programmes after a similar exercise held between April 29 and May 3, 2012 after which only six programmes survived then.

The Centre presented three new programmes and six of the old programmes for validation and revalidation, respectively. They were:

B.A. History and Diplomatic Studies,

B.Sc. Sociology,

B.Sc. Computer Science,

BLIS. Library, Archival and Information Studies,

B.Ed. Guidance and Counseling,

B.Ed. Adult Education,

B.Ed. Educational Management,

B.Sc. Statistics, and

B.A. Communication and Language Arts.

It gives me joy to announce that the NUC has lifted the extant moratorium on admissions into the six old programmes and also approved admissions into the three new programmes presented to it on the platform of the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre with effect from the 2017/2018 Academic Session.

The UIDLC calendar now runs parallel with that of the regular mode. This is evident in the number of undergraduates at the ongoing convocation. It is heart-warming to note that for the first time in recent years graduates on the Distance Learning Mode are being presented alongside their counterparts on regular mode for 2016/17. This, again, is an attestation to the parity of esteem policy which the university projects. The Centre’s current enrolment stands at 9,200.

Upon close scrutiny and strategic projection, the Centre should have not less than five thousand (5,000) applications for the 2018/2019 session.

This, cumulatively would lead to a total enrolment of twenty-five thousand (25,000) learners in the next three years. This is in line with one of the vision of this administration.

Capacity building

The Centre has been organizing capacity building progrsmmes for its facilitators and staff. In March 2018, the Vice-Chancellor and the Director Distance Learning Centre attended a week-long programme on Distance Education in London jointly organized by the National Universities Commission and the University of London. The Director, Distance Learning Centre was back in London last week on the invitation extended by the British Council whereby he served on a panel discussion with representatives from three other universities to discuss Transnational Education, with emphasis on the Distance Education Mode. Later this month, the University of Ibadan will send representatives to another Workshop in Abuja being organized by the National Universities Commission and co-facilitated by the University of London.

Proposed General Administrative Building – IGR Project

I wish to reiterate that one of the pivotal vision of this administration is to construct an Administrative Building at the CBT Centre which is considered the Centre’s permanent site.

International Stakeholders’ Conference and DLC at 30

I have the pleasure to inform you that the Centre recently organised an International Stakeholders’ Conference with the theme, Enhancing Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education, through Open and Distance Learning. The Centre ingeniously organised the conference to coincide with the celebration of its thirtieth anniversary.

Graduation Statistics

This morning, a total number of 6,362 Candidates are graduating from the nine Faculties of Agriculture, The Social Sciences, Education, Veterinary Medicine, Technology, Pharmacy, Economics and Renewable Natural Resources, as well as from our Distance Learning Centre and the Affiliated Institutions.

Table 3

Summary of Graduands for 2018 Convocation Ceremony (2016/2017 Session)

FIRST DEGREES

PROGRAMME

1st Class Honours

2nd Class Honours (Upper Division)

2nd

Class Honours (Lowe Division)

3rd Class Honours

Pass

Unclassified

Total

ARTS

19

172

205

21

4

421

SCIENCE

37

155

188

34

24

-

438

MEDICINE

(i) MBBS

-

-

-

-

-

169

169

(ii) BDS

-

-

-

-

-

31

31

(iii) B. (Physiotherapy)

-

-

-

-

-

23

23

(iv) B. NSc. (Nursing)1

1

9

15

-

2

-

27

(v)B.Sc. (Biochemistry)

1

11

31

9

-

-

52

(vi) B.Sc. (Physiology)

-

11

22

3

-

-

36

(vii). B,Sc. (Medical Laboratory Science)

-

4

14

-

-

18

(vii)B.Sc.(Human Nutrition)

2

6

23

-

-

-

31

AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

12

77

95

7

2

-

193

SOCIAL SCIENCES

8

104

208

21

4

-

345

EDUCATION

7

126

196

9

1

-

339

DISTANCE LEARNING CENTRE

34

415

2040

543

18

-

3050

AFFILIATED INSTITUTIONS

33

512

1162

173

12

-

1892

VETERINARY MEDICINE (DVM)

-

-

-

-

-

77

77

TECHNOLOGY

37

86

122

14

1

-

260

LAW

21

64

48

-

1

-

134

PHARMACY

-

-

-

-

-

72

72

GRAND TOTAL

212

1752

4369

834

69

372

7,608

Major Activities and Achievements

It is not possible, at occasion like this, to exhaustively report all that have been achieved by the University in all areas in the last one year, but permit me to mention few of our modest achievements in academic and human capacity building:

Ø It is my joy to announce to the Convocation that 23 undergraduate students of the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries have been employed by the leading Aquaculture and Fisheries industries in Nigeria through the attraction facilitated by the Department. Continuous efforts are being made to attract more employment opportunities for the Department’s graduates by the industries.

Ø The newly established Department in the Faculty of Economics is prepared to admit undergraduate students in the 2019/2020 academic session as all documentations required to secure resources accreditation by the National Universities Commission (NUC) are completed.

Ø The University Management has approved six academic staff positions for each of the three newly established Departments in the Faculty of Economics viz: Departments of Accounting, Banking and Finance and Marketing and Consumer Studies.

Ø The entrepreneurship programmes of the Department of Adult Education for 200-400 level students were reinvigorated with the inclusion of Fashion Design, Barbing, Graphic Arts and Photography.

Ø Our Faculty of Pharmacy regained full accreditation status of the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme after the NUC accreditation visit in November, 2017

Ø The Board of the Centre for Drug Discovery, Development and Production was inaugurated in September, 2018

Ø Students of Pharmacy have, in the outgoing year, participated in the national and international workshops in the following locations: Rwanda, Switzerland, Abuja and Ilisan Remo, Ogun State.

Ø The Faculty of Education International Conference on the Theme ‘Africa and Education 2030 Agenda’ held from 25-28 June, 2018.

Ø I am delighted to report that the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management has admitted, through both the UTME and Direct Entry, the first set of students for the B.Sc (Architecture) Programme consequent upon the approval of the programme by the NUC early 2018.

Ø Resource verification by the NUC for the admission of students for the B.Sc programmes in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Estate Management and of Quantity Surveying will hold in the first quarter of 2019.

Honours and Distinctions

Professor Jonathan Oyebamiji, Provost of the Postgraduate College, Professor Mayowa Ojo Owolabi, Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences and Professor Iruka Nwamaka Okeke, Head Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, were elected Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Science.

Professor Olutayo Adesina, Professor of History and immediate Past Director of the Centre for General Studies, Professor I. D. Ayegboyin, immediate Past Head, Department of Religious Studies and Professor Godwin Sogolo, retired Professor of Philosophy and Quondam Dean of Arts, were elected Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.

The Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professors J. A. Ademokoya and and a former Dean of the faculty, Professor O. A. Moronkola have been nominated as Members of the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Education

Dr Funmilola Ayeni of the Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology received a President’s Fund Grant from the United Kingdom Society for Applied Microbiology.

Dr Olusoji Henry Cole, Arts Fellow I in the Department of Theatre Arts has won the 2018 edition of the Nigeria Liquiefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize for Literature (Drama category). The value of the prize is One Hundred Thousand US Dollars (approximately Thirty Six Million Naira), which makes it the biggest and most prestigious literary prize in Africa. Dr Cole’s entry, entitled Embers, was unanimously adjudged the best of 89 entries, by the panel of judges, while the international assessor in the United States of America also independently returned the same verdict in his own report. With this feat, Dr Cole becomes the first winner of the prize by a scholar-artist from the University of Ibadan since 2004 when it was instituted. I congratulate Dr Cole, the Department of Theatre Arts and the Faculty of Arts for this achievement.

The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) 2018 Gold Medal Prize for Life Sciences was awarded to three co-winners on 26 October 2018. One of the winners is a staff of our University and another a worthy alumnus. The staff is Prof. Temitayo Ogundiran of our Department of Surgery while the alumnus is Prof. Wasiu Lanre Adejumo.

A 300 Level student of our Department of Computer Science won the National Software Exhibition contest at the biennial conference of the National Association of Computer Science Students that held between 22 and 23 October 2018.

Prof. Akinwale Coker and his Partner at the University of Strathclyde (Dr Ijomah) have been granted a research award in the sum of £223,653.33 based on their proposal titled "Remanufacture: A Strategy to Enable Affordable Quality Healthcare in Developing Countries".

The project will run from December 2018 till 2 December 2021.

Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to express deep appreciation on behalf of the University to all our numerous benefactors in the outgoing year. These are already listed separately in the Order of Proceedings. We pray that God will continue to bless your endeavours and increase your resources!

Convocation Keynote Address:

Today, we will have the second first degree convocation keynote address to be delivered by no less a person than our renowned Educationist, Professor Peter Okebukola, an Alumnus of this University. He is a former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission.

Peter A. Okebukola, DSc, PhD, FSAN, FSTAN, FIAE, DSSE, GIOH, OFR

Distinguished Professor of Science and Computer Education, Lagos State University

Chairman of Council, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Crawford University

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Caleb University

President, Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi-Africa)

I enjoin you to keep a rapt attention and make copious notes to better your chances as you face the world.

Professor Peter Okebukola was once asked the question: ‘How was UI when you were there as an undergraduate?’ His reply is excerpted below:

I was in UI as an undergraduate between 1970 and 1973. Those were glorious days in terms of quality of education and student life. UI was a truly international university drawing staff from all over the world. Laboratories, libraries and classrooms compared favourably with such facilities in universities in Europe and North America. Class sizes were small and social vices hardly recorded. Our halls of residence were like 3-star hotels and we were treated like kings and queens. There were no interruptions to the academic calendar. A few weeks after the session was over, parents and students got copies of examination results. Those were memorable years.

(Okebukola, P. www.punchng.com; Saturday, 14 December, 2013)

He has been extremely supportive of his alma mata. Only God knows how many times we have invited him to interact with the leadership of this university. I remember meeting with him at a Conference a few years ago and he asked me whether the University of Ibadan does any Monitoring and Evaluation. I was unable to reply in the affirmative. I merely said, ‘Not as far as I am aware’. It then follows quite naturally when we were planning to hold the first Workshop for Deans and Heads of Departments in early August 2016, Professor Okebukola was a natural choice to give the Keynote Address. He gladly accepted my humble invitation. On Wednesday, last week ago, he delivered a keynote address at the University of Ibadan Research and Development Fair (UI-TOWN CONNECT) on the theme ‘The Academic as Public Intellectual: 70 Years of Traversing Gown and Town’ at this same venue. We cannot thank you enough for always coming to our assistance.

I am sure you will share his experience since he graduated from here in 1973 with you.

Closing

Once again, I congratulate all our graduands for your achievement in this University. I encourage you to be active in the quest for knowledge as your education does not end with the conclusion of your degree programme. Remember the common saying that knowledge is power keep the flag flying as worthy ambassadors of this University, where we always strive for academic excellence.

May God grant you all journey mercies back to your various destinations.

Thank you for your attention.

Professor A. Idowu Olayinka, FAS

Vice Chancellor