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Osun State University will hold the convocation ceremony for 1,946 graduates of the 2018/2019 academic session online.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Labode Popoola, disclosed this on Monday while addressing journalists at Olagunsoye Oyinlola Auditorium, on the main campus of the University in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Popoola stated that 95% of the graduating students have registered to be part of the 9th convocation ceremony, which would be held virtually on September 21, 2020.
The Vice Chancellor, who personally handed over the convocation kits to a courier service operator for onward delivery to the registered graduands, said using the courier service to send the kits was to ensure proper convocation ceremony.
He noted that instead of the institution to be complaining about the new norm brought by the coronavirus pandemic, they are ready to conduct the first-ever virtual convocation ceremony in the history of public universities in Nigeria.
“This virtual convocation will be our 9th convocation ceremony and the convocation lecture will be delivered by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, a professor of Economics, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, New York, and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are indeed expectant and so look forward to a thought-provoking lecture on the topic: “The New Normal: Challenges and Opportunities for Tertiary Education.”
According to Popoola, “the total graduate output of the university for the 9th convocation captures our graduands for the 2018/2019 academic session and it is 1,946. These graduands will be conferred with first degrees and 52 graduands with higher degrees and Diplomas. Out of this number, 35 bagged first-class degrees, representing 1.79% of the total number of graduands. Also, 603 made second class upper; 972 made second class lower; 274 made the third class; while only 10 will be awarded the pass degree.”
“I will be handing 1,946 convocation kits to the courier service to deliver them to the door steps of our graduands for them to be able to participate in the first of its kind 9th convocation ceremony of the university virtually from their respective locations. Each convocation kit has five distinct items and they include the well-laundered convocation gown with cap, the convocation brochure, scroll, and a plaque customized for each graduand as souvenir and memorabilia from the Osun State University,” Popoola added.