Kosiso Anokwuru
Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI) Ebonyi State, officially welcomed 3,263 new students into the institution at the seventh matriculation ceremony held recently.
It also emerged that 164 students were asked by the university to withdraw from the institution in the 2017/2018 academic session due to poor academic performance.
The event, which wore a carnival-like air, had in attendance hundreds of parents, guardians and other guests who all converged at the university main campus to felicitate with the matriculating students.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, congratulated the students for scaling the rigorous selection process for admission into the university.
“In the 2018/2019 academic exercise, 12,219 made at least 180 in the UTME and were invited to our Post-UTME test, but about 3,263 who succeeded were offered admission and are matriculating.”
He expressed hope that the new students would imbibe the core values of the institution so that they can excel academically and have a better performance than students admitted in the previous session.
“It is painful to note that of the 2,397 students that we admitted in the 2017/2018 academic session, about 297 are currently on probation, and another 164 were asked to withdraw at the end of the session for reasons of poor academic performance.
“We expect this set to be different. To be different, you have to focus on the main purpose of your coming to AE-FUNAI. You are here simply to study. Every other thing is secondary. Work hard and behave well, and you will be successful.”
The VC charged the matriculants during the oath taking ceremony to abide by the principles of the university, warning that the Senate of the university will not hesitate to invoke relevant sections of the law against any student caught engaging in acts that are not in tandem with the motto of the school -’Excellence and integrity.’
Nwajiuba stressed further that for proper guidance in AE-FUNAI, the students ought to be conscious about the sermon of the seven sins mistakenly attributed to Mohandas Ghandi in 1925.
He said: “All of us must be conscious of the seven social sins first uttered in a sermon delivered in Westminster Abbey on March 20, 1925 by an Anglican priest Frederick Lewis Donaldson but commonly mistakenly attributed to Mohandas Gandhi who published the same list in his weekly newspaper Young India on October 22, 1925.
“The seven sins are: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without conscience, knowledge without character, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, and politics without principe.”
He also assured parents and guardians that their children and wards have chosen the right place to study, adding that amidst zero tolerance for vices, the university posses well trained staffs and don’t tolerate the idea of selling handouts to students.
His words: “Our lecturers and other staff are dedicated to their work and meet very high professional standards. We do not sell handouts to students. Our lecturers are not booksellers. Books are available in the bookshop and students buy text books only from the bookshop.”