From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Determined to henceforth have regular yearly convocation, the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), would on Saturday, at its 18th Convocation ceremony admit a total of 29,240 graduands into various degrees.
This number is made up of First Degree, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters Degree, MBA and Ph.D graduands from 2016 to 2021, covering a backlog of five academic sessions.
Disclosing this to newsmen at the university auditorium during the 18th Convocation Press Briefing, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, said on assumption of office in April the management discovered the last convocation of the university for graduands of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 was held in 2016.
Frowning at the situation, the management he said resolved to tackle the backlog so as to reverse the trend and pave way for regular yearly convocation, assuring that henceforth, convocations in ESUT would be regular.
A breakdown of the number showed that First Degree has 21, 298 graduands, Postgraduate Diploma 1,807, Masters Degree 3,155, MBA 2,130 and Ph.D 850.
The Vice Chancellor who said the mission of his management was “to evangelise and project ESUT to the world, to transform the university and return it once more on the global intellectual map,” stressed that the rebranding of the institution was targeted at making it more competitive, visible and a first choice university in Africa.
Okolie disclosed that as part of the rebranding, the management has started digitalizing the process of obtaining transcript in the university, assuring that “when you need your transcript in ESUT, you don’t need to come here, you just apply from where ever you are in the world and it will be processed and sent to you at only 72 hours.”
He also said that from next year, ESUT would no longer issue statement of result to any student but rather issue certificates.
The VC said, “From this second year, ESUT will no longer issue statement of result to any student. Immediately they finished and after approval by the Senate, we issue certificates to students that deserve the certificates. By January 2023 we are going to place adverts in three national dailies informing the general public, particularly people alumnus of ESUT that that, that statement of result they are carrying will be invalid by June, 2023. So anybody carrying the statement of result of ESUT after June 2023 will be carrying invalid paper.
“The meaning is that we are recalling all those statement of result in exchange for certificate. ESUT will no longer be known for statement of results, ESUT will be known for certificates.”