UNIPORT to graduate 9,452 students, 106 bag first class

The University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) will on Saturday graduate 9,452 students with 106 of them  bagging First Class degrees.
Prof. Ndowa Lale, the Vice-Chancellor of the university,  disclosed this at a news conference on Monday in Port Harcourt as part of programmes to mark  the 32nd Convocation Ceremony of the institution.
Lale said the conferment of degrees, higher degrees, diploma, certificates and prizes would hold at the university from March 29 to March 30.
According to him, the convocation was mainly for students who finished their academic programmes for the  2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic sessions.
“In the undergraduate category, a total of 4,771 students were harvested with 3,205 and 1,566 for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic sessions respectively.
“Out of the figure, 106 graduands will receive the First Class Honours,  1,799 Second Class Upper Division,  2,533 Second Class Lower Division while 132 will receive Third Class degrees.
“Also, a total of 70 will receive Bachelor of Pharmacy degrees; 105 will be admitted into Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery while 26 students gets Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree,” he said.
Lale said no fewer than 4,681 students would also be conferred with the Doctor of Philosophy degree, Master’s degree and Postgraduate Diploma in various specialisation and programmes.
The vice chancellor said the students were drawn from eight faculties which included  Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Education, Engineering, Management Sciences, Agriculture and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Others were School of Science Laboratory Technology (SSLT) and College of Health Sciences.
“The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, will deliver a convocation lecture on March 28 entitled: “ Higher Education as a Driver of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of a Nation.’’
“UNIPORT will continue to produce quality graduates that will compete favourably with their counterparts locally and internationally,” he said.
Lale said that since he took office in 2015,  several programmes had been introduced with the focus of  making UNIPORT a world class university in academics, research and development.
He said that students and lecturers now take  attendance to class and other academic work seriously due to stringent measures introduced in the university.
“We have completed rehabilitation of 15 hostel accommodation and  nine lecture halls and classrooms in collaboration with the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).
“Also, 16 of the 32 housing units that we initiated at the University Park have now been completed and allocated to staff.
“I am also pleased to announce that all the programmes offered in UNIPORT now enjoy full accreditation status – thanks to the quality of our academic programmes and personnel,” he added.
The vice chancellor said that UNIPORT would continue to play a leading role in research and development in order to solve  practical problems of industries and the larger society.