… Quality assurance behind academic success, strides – VC

… Seeks tax relief, NELFUND extension for private varsities

Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, has disclosed that it will graduate no fewer than 836 students at its 16th convocation ceremony, with 98 bagging first-class degrees.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Omolola Irinoye, who disclosed the figures during a press briefing ahead of the convocation slated for October 30 and 31, 2026, stressed that the graduating class comprises 786 undergraduates and 50 postgraduate students.

Irinoye defended the number of first-class graduates, attributing the performance to the university’s investment in quality assurance and academic standards.

According to her, the institution maintains a 70 per cent class attendance requirement and continuous assessment standards before students qualify for examinations, while its quality assurance unit monitors the performance of both lecturers and students.

The vice-chancellor also raised concerns over what she described as excessive taxation of private universities, appealing for the need to review the taxes to ease the financial burden on institutions and parents.

While emphasising that the university had approved the federal government’s new minimum wage for its staff, Irinoye called for the extension of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to students in private universities, arguing that they should not be excluded from educational support because of the institutions they attend.

She maintained that private university students are not exclusively from elite backgrounds and disclosed that the university offers full-tuition scholarships for several programmes and tuition discounts of between 65 and 80 per cent in other categories, with at least 500 beneficiaries since inception.

Irinoye said, “We have no apologies for the number of first-class students that we have. We spend a lot of money to ensure that we drive quality, and we also ensure that students are not denied what they deserve.

“If you see the tax we pay, you would feel this is not an education area. We appeal to the government to reduce this for the sake of students.

“It is not right for Nigerian children in private universities to be denied opportunities that should be available to every Nigerian. Not all students in private universities are children of the elite.”

With the Vice-Chancellor expressing concern over the cost of electricity, she said the university had signed a memorandum of understanding with PowerGen Renewable Energy for the development of a solar farm to help address its electricity challenges.

Irinoye also disclosed that the university’s annual admission quota had increased from 50 to 120 students, with an 86 per cent pass rate recorded in the Part I MBBS examination, with the institution providing a 450-room medical hostel for students, while other infrastructure projects are ongoing to support teaching, learning and research.

“The convocation lecture will be delivered by the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dr Emomotimi Agama, on October 30.

“Honorary doctorate degrees will be conferred on the Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba Victor Adesimbo Kiladejo; Captain Edward Boyo; and Engr. Norbert C. Oleah on October 31.”