The Federal University of Technology (FUTO) on Tuesday November 30, flagged off activities to commemorate its 33rd convocation ceremony with the Vice Chancellor, Prof Mrs Nnenna Oti’s interactive session with journalists at the Council Chamber.
Activities lined up for the week-long convocation ceremony include a pre-convocation press briefing which held at the council chamber on Tuesday November 30, 2021, an ecumenical service which held by 10.am on Wednesday December 1, inside the 1,000 capacity Hall of Excellency.
On Thursday, December, 2, there was Tree-Planting at selected sites in the university by 10.am while the Chancellor’s/Alumni Cocktail Night held at 4pm.
The 33rd convocation lecture on the topic, “The Challenge of Funding and Survival of university educating; Options for Radical Trajectory in Nigerian universities to be delivered by Amb Dr Godknows Boladeji Igali OON, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) will hold by 4pm on Friday December 3, at the Hall of Excellence.
There will also be Student’s Research and Exposition Show at the Convocation Arena, FUTO same day by 11am.
The highlight of the weeklong event which is the admission of the graduands into various degrees, award of Post Graduate Diplomas, prizes and induction of the graduands by the Chancellor will hold at the convocation arena at 11am on Saturday, December, 4, 2021.
It was gathered that 4,032 graduands would be conferred with first degrees,while 380 would be awarded higher degrees of the university.
Out of these figures, 64 had First class Honours, 1,399 had Second Class, Honours (Upper Division) 250 had Third Class Honours while 2 had pass. It was also gathered that 39 graduands were conferred with (Doctor of Optometry) degree.
The recond also shows that 42 people were awarded PhD, while 219 were awarded PGD certificates.
The Vice Chancellor of the university commended the Best Graduating Student for the 2019/2020 class of graduands, Osigwe Chisom Henry of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.96 for exceptional performance.
Prof (Mrs) Oti who assumed office on June, 19, 2021 as the Substantive V.C. also used the occasion to highlight some of her achievements in barely five months.
They include:
i. “Establishment of a College of Medicine, with proposition for a Teaching Hospital.
ii. Establishment of the School of Electrical Systems Engineering Technology (SESET) housing Departments of Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Computer Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering.
iii. Establishment of the School of Logistics and Innovation Technology (SLIT) housing Departments of Logistics and Transport Technology, Project Management and Technology, Supply Chain Management and Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
iv. Establishment of the Centre of Excellence on Local Materials Substitutions initiated by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB). This brings to three, the number of Centres of Excellence in the University.
v. Successful recovery of University land from land grabbers and speculators, at Avu, along Owerri-Portharcourt Road, and fencing of the proposed site for the College of Medicine and Teaching Hospital.
vi. Full accreditation of nine (9) Engineering programmes of the University by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).”
There are also plans to:
· “Establish the School of Pharmacy and Nursing
· Expand free internet access to all students and staff
· Provide 24/7 electric power supply to the University
· Build more student hostels, classrooms and lecture theatre
· Digitalize all student records and results
· Provide solar street lighting
· Expand University internal roads and rehabilitate existing ones
· Perimeter fencing of the entire University, among others”.
