Vice-Chancellor of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Prof. Ganiyu Olatunde, has warned universities in the country against indiscriminate award of first class degree to their students.
Olatunde spoke in Ago-Iwoye on Wednesday at a news conference on the activities lined up for the 30th convocation of the institution, scheduled for Jan. 31.
According to him, a situation where some universities will have a significant number of their graduating students bagging first class is becoming worrisome.
The vice chancellor, however, clarified that any student deserving of such grade should not be denied.
He also said that university graduates should be able to defend the degrees and certificates held by them.
“A situation where you have a university graduating a few hundreds of students, with more than 100 of them bagging first class leaves room for probing questions.
“No one is saying that students who deserve first class degrees should not be given. Hard work, dedication and commitment should be rewarded.
“However, the manner some universities go about placing students in that category should be checked,” he said.
The don said that the institution would be graduating 6,257 out of whom only 55 were in the first class category.
The vice-chancellor explained that the institution could vouch for its graduates that they would defend whatever certificates and degrees they possessed.
Giving a breakdown of the graduating students cutting across the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 sessions, Olatunde said that 991 were in the second class upper category.
He added that 2,738 bagged second class lower, with 1,925 in the third class category, 217 in the pass category and 135 in the unclassified category.
The vice-chancellor added that 140 would be awarded post-graduate diploma, 486 master degree and 103 doctoral degree.
He also said that the convocation lecture would be delivered by Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
According to Olatunde, the lecture is entitled: “Your Future is in your hands,” adding that a convocation play, written by Prof. Femi Osofosan, would also be staged.
