From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Vice Chancellor, KolaDaisi University Ibadan (KDU-I), Prof Adeniyi Olatubosun, has said private universities are not dumping grounds for students that have been rusticated from public universities over some offences.
He made the disclosure during a press conference held on Tuesday on the campus of the institution ahead of the second convocation ceremony of the university that will hold on Thursday October 6, 2022.
Olatubosun, who stated that a total of 92 students, would graduate from the university, among whom 13 made First-Class honours, also noted that private universities have been filling huge gap in making tertiary education available to large number of young Nigerians desirous of quality education, as both federal and state universities do not have capacity to absorb all qualified products from secondary schools.
He explained that KDU-I has always been conducting background check on every student that seeks admission to the university. Admission, according to him, would only be given to those that have been carefully considered worthy. He added that he was sure that other private universities have also been doing same. Private universities, he noted, also have relationship with public universities.
His words: “The importance of private universities cannot be over-emphasised, most especially at this critical period in the nation, where public universities are not able to meet the high demand of secondary school outputs, who are youths desirous of university education. There is a huge gap that the private universities have been trying to fill and KolaDaisi University has been in the forefront of making education accessible to these teeming youths.
“Education is very critical to the development of a nation and it has been widely acclaimed that a nation cannot rise above the level of the education of her citizens. KolaDaisi University is in the vanguard of providing affordable education that will impart positively on the quality of graduates to be released to the society. I believe this is our little way of contributing to our nation as well as keeping up with the vision of the founder and chancellor, Chief Kola Daisi, when the university was conceived early in the millennium.’
On the convocation ceremony, Olatubosun, who will be officially conferred with the title of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by the Chief Justice of the Federation next month, said: “This year, the university will be graduating 92 students, who have been found worthy in both character and learning. There are 13 First Class graduates, who from their very first day in the university have been consistent with their performances and all of them have enjoyed the university’s scholarship scheme.
“The scholarship was designed to encourage students to excel in their disciplines. The scheme grants half payment of tuition for any student with the highest CGPA not less than 4.5 in each programme. This has resulted in healthy competition among the foremost scholarly students.”
He states further that the graduating students have been equipped with quality leadership to be good ambassadors of the university and to project all the core values of integrity, hard work, and honesty, which they have imbibed during their stay in the university to the larger society.