Obinna Odogwu, Awka and Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Anambra State yesterday churned out 2,355 graduands for the 2018/2019 academic year.
Out of the total figure, 14 bagged First Class honours; 558, Second Class Upper Division; 1,513, Second Class, Lower Division, and 270 got Third Class.
For the higher degrees, a total of 73 walked home with doctorate degrees (Ph.D); 804, Masters degrees and 309, Postgraduate Diploma (PGD).
Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Greg Nwakoby, in his speech at the 10th convocation ceremony of the university said that the institution has taken the lead in restoring stable academic calendar as obtainable in the developed world.
“Our university has taken a lead in restoring a stable academic calendar as we find in developed countries of the world.
“For the past few years, the university has been having uninterrupted academic sessions and our students who now graduate on record time are immediately mobilized for National Youth Service in the same year”, Nwakoby said.
He said that the university has continued to expand in all frontiers of learning with its avowed aim to becoming one of the major centres of teaching, learning and research in the country.
“It is remarkable to note that 56 out of 59 academic programmes offered in our university are fully accredited by the National Universities Commission.
“We went through the NUC accreditation exercise of 13 undergraduate programmes in 2019 and two postgraduate NUC accreditation programmes (Accountancy and Public Administration) also in 2019.
“Our NUC Resource Verification of eight programmes in 2018/2019 session was successful. We equally went through the professional accreditation of our Estate Management programme in 2019/2020 academic session”, the VC said.
Also, as part of the convocation ceremony yesterday, the university conferred Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa, on the Executive Vice Chairman of Chrome Group, Sir (Dr) Emeka Offor and the Chairman/CEO of Dozzy Group of Companies, Sir (Dr) Daniel Nwanneka Chukwudozie while the traditional ruler of Omor community, Igwe (Dr) Oranu Chris Chidume bagged Doctor of Business, honoris causa and Lady Ngozi Nwanosike, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.