A total of 157 students of the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, on Friday bagged First Class degrees at its 2015/2016 convocation.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Ayo, disclosed this during the 11th Convocation Ceremony and Conferment of Honourary Doctorate Degrees, and presentation of prizes in Ota.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a total of 1495 students graduated this academic session.

They comprised 157 first class honours, 708-second class upper honours, 513-second class lower, 118 in third class and 154 post graduate students.

Ayo said that the university has instituted strategic goals that distinguished its students as clear leaders among the comity of universities, not only in Nigeria, but in Africa.

The don identified some of the strategic goals as compulsory internship for all students to gain industry experience, additional certifications in ICT, leadership, entrepreneurship and foreign language.

Ayo also said that the goals include the introduction of Mobile Learning System for improved external and internal efficiency.

Also speaking, Dr. David Oyedepo, the Chancellor of the Institution, noted that in the drive for excellence, the university has continued to blaze the trail and extend the frontiers of knowledge through research.

Oyedepo said that emphasis has been placed on converting research into tangible problem-solving products and that the effort had yielded laudable results.

He urged the Federal Government to increase the country’s annual budget for education because economic growth is the result of investment in education.

“Nigeria cannot have the desired change until our government starts investing massively in education,” Oyedepo said.

He said that education was a platform to produce highly skilled personnel that would drive economic growth.

Oyedepo added that Nigeria could only restore its lost glory and esteem through investing in education.

He advised the Federal Government to re-double its efforts in tacking corruption in the system, so that a sustainable development could be achieved through investment in education.

Prof. Jerry Gana, a former Nigerian Minister of Information and Orientation, lamented the lack of training facilities for Nigeria’s graduates.

He observed that poor access to quality education and too many students competing for few spaces had hindered the standard of education.

Gana, who is the Pro-Chancellor /Chairman of the Governing Council of University of Lagos, appealed to the Federal Government to provide adequate funding for universities, so that the vocational imbalance in the system could be addressed.

He said that to restore academic standard in Nigeria, there was the need for infrastructure development in the nation’s institutions. (NAN)

•Photo shows Covenant University Chancellor, Dr. David Oyedepo.

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