Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Adejare Adeboye, has donated N10million to the University of Ibadan to support the take off of new Department of Architecture in the institution.
Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Idowu Olayinka, announced this during the matriculation ceremony held for 17 foreign students and 3,646 out of 46,836 candidates that picked the institution as their first choice in their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for the 2018/2019 academic session.
The ceremony was held at the International Conference Centre of the institution in Ibadan on Wednesday. The matriculation lecture entitled: “The Essence of Matriculation: A Trajectory for Enduring Success,” was delivered by Dr. Yemisi Solanke-Koya, a medical doctor and a lawyer, and daughter of the first female senior advocate of Nigeria, Chief Folake Solanke (SAN).
Olayinka stated: “In spite of our limited resources, both the Senate of the University and the National Universities Commission approved the introduction of a Bachelor of Science degree programme in Architecture for us. We thank the NUC for this intervention and we are convinced that we are being patriotic in this respect as there is a dearth of architects in this country.
“The number of architects in our entire country – Nigeria, with a population of 190 million, is less than that of the city of Berlin, Germany, which has a population of 3.575 million.
“We are optimistic that in the next few years, Ibadan will start producing its own graduates in Architecture, who will not only design individual houses, but whose creativity, imagination and ideas will shape the entire city of Ibadan, and other cities in Oyo State, Nigeria and the rest of the world.
“We thank the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, a great and long-standing friend of this university, for donating a sum of N10million to support our new Department of Architecture.”
Olayinka, in his address, explained that out of the 46,836 candidates, 22,447 candidates scored 200 marks and above at the Post-UTME screening conducted by the institution and they were the only ones considered for admission.
“A total of 46, 836 UTME candidates applied to UI for the 2018/2019 admission exercise, with the highest score at 357 by a candidate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. We had 17 candidates from three foreign countries namely Cameroun, Benin Republic, Ghana,” he said
According to him, the number of admitted students represents 7.8 per cent of the total number of candidates who initially chose UI as their preferred university, adding that only one out of every 13 UTME candidates eventually got an admission slot in the university.
His words: “In addition, 317 direct entry candidates have been offered admission out of the 1,109 who applied through that mode. The total number of candidates admitted for the current session thus stands at 3,963.”
Olayinka stated further that the 50 candidates that deferred their admission from the 2017/18 session, as well as one transfer candidate, were given admission, thus bringing the total number of candidates for matriculation to 4,014.
He said a total of 6,156 candidates, comprising UTME, Direct Entry and those admitted through the Distance Learning mode, were cleared and took the matriculation oath, comprising “Faculty of Arts – 659, Faculty of Science – 614, College of Medicine – 552 (made up of (Basic Medical Sciences – 192, Clinical Sciences – 241, Dentistry – 28, Public Health – 91).
“Faculty of Agriculture – 273, Faculty of the Social Sciences – 264, Faculty of Education – 681, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine – 88, Faculty of Technology – 385, Faculty of Pharmacy – 91, Faculty of Law – 154, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources – 162, Faculty of Environmental Design and Management – 20, School of Economics – 71, and Distance Learning – 2,142.