….Wants NELFUND, TERTFUND, bursaries extended to them

….As US, Canadian varsities confers honorary degrees on Afe Babalola

The management of the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), has urged the government to to stop marginalizing private universities by extending benefits including NELFUND, TERTFUND and bursaries to them.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Smaranda Olarinde spoke yesterday in Ado Ekiti at a press conference heralding the 14th convocation ceremony of the institution.

Olarinde said: “The government must be sensitive to private universities, the attention has been focused on government universities. Private University has been excluded from NELFUND, TERTFUND, Bursaries. They should extend these schemes to all universities.

“Maybe the government, rather than considering the status of the university public or private,
will extend the same benefits to all universities in the future. That is what I believe a responsible, highly sensitive government should do for the education sector. The education system is made of higher education by federal, state, and private universities.”

Meanwhile, Western University, Canada and Trinity International University, United States, will honours Babalola with honorary degrees during the grand finale of the convocation scheduled for October 21, 2026.
The Vice Chancellor said the honorary degrees recognised Babalola’s contributions to legal scholarship, educational innovation, philanthropy, social development and leadership.

Also, the university would confer honorary Doctor of Letters degrees, honoris causa, on three Nigerians: the Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo; Chairman of Cavista Holdings, John Olajide; and business leader, Dr. Rosemary Osula Mku-Atu.

The vice-chancellor said the awards were intended to recognise their contributions to society and provide graduating students with examples of how professional accomplishments could be matched with service to humanity.

“At this 14th Unbroken Convocation, the University will graduate a total of 2,194 students. Of this number, 1,759 are graduating from undergraduate and professional programmes, while 435 are graduating from postgraduate programmes, comprising 359 students of the College of Postgraduate Studies and 76 students of the ABUAD Business School postgraduate programmes.

“The graduating students breakdown per college is as follows: Engineering, 251; Law, 205; Medicine and Health Sciences, 625, including 271 graduates of Medicine and Surgery and Optometry; Sciences, 180; Social and Management Sciences, 206; Pharmacy, 115; Open and Distance Learning, 32; Part-Time Studies, 137; and the undergraduate programmes of the ABUAD Business School 8.

“The total number of graduating students is 2,194 out of which 1,759 are undergraduate and 435 are postgraduate. The postgraduate cohort accounts for 19.83 per cent of the total number of graduating students.

“Across the programmes in which conventional degree classifications apply, 286 graduands obtained First Class degrees, 824 obtained Second Class Upper degrees, 234 obtained Second Class Lower degrees and 29 obtained Third Class degrees. The remaining graduands completed professional or postgraduate programmes for which these classifications do not apply.”

However, the Convocation Lecture will be delivered by Professor Obiora Okonkwo, Chairman of United Nigeria Airline Company Limited, on the topic Functional Education and the Nigeria Project: Strategic Human Capital Development for National Renewal.