ESUT To Conduct Convocation Annually

Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Vice-Chancellor Prof. Aloysius-Michaels Okolie has announced that the university will now hold its convocation annually.

This was disclosed by Okolie in a news briefing at the university's Agbani campus on Wednesday ahead of this weekend's 18th convocation.

The vice-chancellor said that his administration had resolved to tackle the backlog of convocations, from 2016 to 2021, to reverse the trend.

"The management frowned at the situation and resolved to tackle the backlog from 2016 to 2021 and by so doing, reverse the trend and pave the way for annual convocation.

“The 18th convocation is for graduands from 2016 to 2021, covering five academic seasons, with a total of 29,240 graduands to be admitted into various degrees.

His estimate includes 1,807 postgraduate diplomas, 3,155 master's degrees, 2,130 MBAs, and 850 doctorates.

“First degree graduands shows that 35 came out with first class honours, 4,953 made second class upper and 14,743 second class lower

“1,284 students were in the third class category, while 283 recorded pass degree, making it a total of 21, 298 first degree graduands within the period,” he said.

Under his administration, he said, management set out to reactivate and embed some of the respected and true academic cultures of top universities.

“We are out to activate and strengthen the capacity of quality assurance and servicing unit, strict monitoring and enforcement of discipline.

“We are also activating relevant university committees for effective service delivery and prompt response to infractions of and breaches to extant regulations.

“The university is also re-introducing the committee on reward for excellence, prompt processing of certificates, reactivation of inaugural lectures and promotion of fundamental principle of management by inclusive participation.

“We are equally imbibing professionalism, passion, ownership and competitive mindset among the leaderships at the various levels of the university administration, among other critical breakthroughs.

Okolie said he was negotiating with some consultants about getting into mechanised agriculture. This is with the aim of becoming a major supplier of palm oil and papaw fruits within two years.

“These we hope to achieve by utilising the vast expanse of land at the our disposal to plant about 2,000 seedling of hybrid palm oil and 1000 hybrid pawpaw tress.

According to him, his administration has resolved to give graduands' certificates on the day of convocation, rather than waiting for years for them to be collected.

“In this convocation, we will be awarding honorary degrees to five people who have rendered selfless service to the society, as approved by the ESUT Governing Council,” he said.