Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A total of 13 students bagged first class as Dominican University, Ibadan, holds its maiden and second convocation ceremonies on Saturday, December 10, 2022.
The acting vice chancellor (VC) of the university, Professor Hyginus Ekwuazi, disclosed this on Monday, at the pre-convocation press conference, held at one of the auditoriums of the institution.
Ekwuazi gave the total number of graduating students for both the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic sessions as 96.
“Out of the total 47 graduands for the 2020/2021 academic session, six graduands are in the First Class Honours category; 22 in the Second Class Honours (Upper Division) category; and 19 graduands in the Second Class Honours (Lower Division) category.
“In the 2021/2022 academic session, out of the total 49 graduands, seven graduands are in the First Class Honours category; 32 in the Second Class Hounours(Upper Division) category and nine graduands in the Second Class Honours (Lower Division) category,” he said.
According to the acting VC, activities leading to the convocation ceremony will kick off with a Foundation Lecture on Friday, December 9,2022.
“The Foundation Lecture will be delivered by the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the University, Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN). The title of the lecture is, ‘An Impact– The vision for Domnican University, Ibadan,’ and it will start around 2pm at Tom and Carolyn Walker Hall.
“At the end of the lecture, the Proprietor, Very Rev. Fr. Modestus Ngwu, OP, will commission the PS 133 Water Fountain at the Samonda campus of the university.
“On December 10, 2022, the university will hold the combined convocation ceremonies for the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic sessions. The convocation ceremony begins at 11am at the Samonda campus of the university. The convocation lecture, ‘Let your Degree Count,’ will be delivered by Mr Peter Amangbo, Chairman, Board of Directors, Globus Bank Ltd, and a member of the Governing Council of the university,” the acting VC said.
He added that the Chancellor of the University, Very Rev. Fr. Modestus Ngwu, O.P, who presides at convocation ceremonies and other assemblies of the university for the conferment of degrees, diplomas and certificates and other awards, shall confer and present degrees and awards to the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 graduands of the university.
“The executive governor of Oyo State, Engr Seyi Makinde, FNSE, will be the Chief Guest at the convocation. The special guests of honor for the occasion will be His Imperial Majestic, Senator Mohood Olalekan Balogun, Olubadan of Ibadan land, and His Imperial Majesty, Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, Ooni of Ife,” he said.
Ekwuazi noted that although there were challenges confronting the university like every other institution of higher learning in the country, the emphasis has always been on the quality of graduates being produced by the university.
Speaking, a member of the institution’s Governing Council, Dr Juliet Shenge, said the university’s major challenge is funding, adding that endowment is very important in every institution.
“As a private institution, just like the VC has said, we are having challenge of funding. Even at individual level, we can’t just turn everything that need to be turned at a particular point in time. We have to give priority to the things that we need to keep growing. I am very glad that our students are graduating and I believe after this convocation, we are going to have the Alumni association.
“That is the beginning of wonderful things in this institution. Even if we don’t have endowment fund for best graduating student for the future, at least there are awards and other prices we are going to give. But then I can assure you that in a few years from now and with all our products out there as ambassadors, we are going to have the influx of different forms of endowments that the university will be proud of,” she said.
The university’s Dean of Students, Fr. Patrick Akunne OP, said it is always about quality for the institution.
He said: “Quality first and that is something that goes with our Dominican tradition. We have a traditional of quality delivery. It is not as if we do not want to have many students, but we want to have students that we would be proud of.
“We want great models and good ambassadors of the university. So, we are growing gradually and we are happy with the way we are growing.”
Fr. Akunne disclosed that the university have eight programmes running, out of which seven have been accredited.
“We just had a visitation from NUC for one of the programmes, Economics. Chemistry started last session; we are yet to have a visit from the NUC for the accreditation of the programme but it is running. We believe in quality and we wouldn’t want to give parents anything less for the investments they are making on their children,” he added.
Contributing, the university’s acting Registrar, Fr. Samuel Onyiba OP, said the institution is expanding, adding that there is a new campus under construction at Omotoso village, in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State.
“Where we are today is the Samonda campus of the Dominican University, there is another campus located in Omotoso village, Akinyele Local Government. That is the project that is under construction and we have members of our BOT who are ready to ensure the project is properly financed. This is only the beginning, we do hope to move programmes to the new site when it is good enough to commence activities there,” he said.
According to Fr. Onyiba, the university is making efforts to ensure there are a number of funding opportunities.
“There are a lot of MoUs and strategic meeting that are taking place to ensure that endowments come to the university. For example,there is a working agreement, a work in progress MoU with the University of Wales. When that is done, we’ll let people know.
“Dominican University is a work in progress. Every big project starts small, so we are taking our steps gradually and also taking giant strides to get to where we want to be,” he added.
