Get Guardian on Google… Begins MBBS, mechatronics, software engineering programmes
… CJN to deliver convocation lecture
… Varsity researchers secure £385,094 ERASMUS+ grant
No fewer than 116 students out of the 964 graduands will bag First Class honours at Elizade University’s 10th and 11th Combined Convocation, covering the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Philip Oguntunde, disclosed this on Friday during a press briefing heralding the commencement of a week-long programme that will culminate in the award of first degrees, postgraduate degrees and honorary doctoral degrees by the institution.
While giving a breakdown of the graduands, Oguntunde stated that 884 students will receive bachelor’s degrees, while 80 will be awarded postgraduate qualifications.
The Vice-Chancellor added that the undergraduate graduands comprise 358 from the 2024/2025 session and 526 from the 2025/2026 session, stressing that aside from the 116 First Class graduates, 398 will earn Second Class Upper degrees, 299 Second Class Lower, 69 Third Class and two Pass.
He also disclosed that the Convocation Lecture scheduled for November 12, 2026, will be delivered by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, at the newly completed 2,500-capacity Beatrice Ademolawe Ojo Multipurpose Auditorium and will be chaired by Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, former Secretary-General of Afenifere and pioneer Pro-Chancellor of Federal University, Lafia.
The Vice-Chancellor also disclosed that the National Universities Commission (NUJ) has granted full accreditation to all six programmes assessed during its October/November 2025 exercise, including Law, Accounting and Finance, Microbiology, Business Administration, Human Resource Management and Computer Science.
He maintained that the Council of Legal Education increased the university’s law admission quota from 70 to 120, while the nursing science programme quota was also increased.
He described the approval granted to the university to commence the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programme as a landmark achievement, noting that admission into the programme has commenced following a successful resource verification exercise by the NUC.
He also announced the introduction of Mechatronics Engineering, Software Engineering and Public Health, as well as postgraduate programmes in Architecture.
In research, he disclosed that researchers in the Department of Biological Sciences secured an ERASMUS+ research grant valued at £385,094, adding that the university is the Lead Partner in a submitted ERASMUS-EDU-2026-CBHE grant proposal involving a consortium of nine institutions across Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Spain and Germany.
He also said the university is collaborating with the North-west Institute of Ecological Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences towards establishing a China-Africa Joint Laboratory, expected to be located at Elizade University, with a Memorandum of Understanding already signed.
