The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has awarded the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Ilorin, Kwara State, a High Impact Intervention for equipment upgrade in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology to the tune of ₦1 billion.

Also, the Department of Microbiology has received a scientific consignment valued at ₦100 million for the XSTAR Project Nigeria.

The Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole (SAN), disclosed these on Monday, at the 41st convocation press briefing, while reviewing the school’s achievements in the last year.

He hinted that 16,152 graduands would grace this year Convocation, adding that the event would mark another significant milestone in the academic journey of the institution.

According to him, the First-Degree category has 11,213 graduands and would be presented for the conferment of their respective qualifications.

“These include 365 First-Class, 4,367 Second Class (Upper Division), 5102 Second Class (Lower Division), 1006 (Third Class) and 30 Pass.

“The Convocation also features the graduation of students from various professional programmes.

“These include 19 MB;BS graduands, 89 Nursing graduands, 73 Pharmacy graduands, 41 Optometry graduands, 89 Physiotherapy and 32 Veterinary Medicine graduands.

In addition, he said the University will confer 4,939 Higher Degrees and Diplomas at the 41st Convocation Ceremony.

“This comprises 160 Postgraduate Diplomas, 901 Master’s degrees across the various Faculties, 114 Professional Master’s degrees, 2 Master of Philosophy (MA Phil) degrees, and 251 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. A total of 3,511 will be graduating from our Centre for Affiliated Institutions.

“These figures reflect the University’s continued commitment to academic excellence, professional training, research, innovation, and developing highly skilled graduates equipped to make meaningful contributions to national and global development.

According to Egbewole, the leadership dexterity often displayed in administration atttracted the recognition of the quality of the school’s academic content, that eventually earned full accreditation in eleven academic programmes, during the accreditation exercise by the National Universities Commission (NUC) 2025.

He recalled that in 2026, the varsity got over N260 million worth eight awards under the National Research Fund (NRF), saying: “the University secured eight awards under the 2026 NRF, amounting to ₦260,291,695 and emerged the fourth-best-performing university nationally in the latest TETFund ranking cycle.

“In the 2026 SCImago Institutions Rankings, UNILORIN was ranked Nigeria’s number-one university in Aquatic Science. It also placed fifth among the seven Nigerian universities featured in the 2026–2027 U.S. News Best Global Universities Rankings and joint 4th in the World University Ranking 2027,” he said.

He, however, attributed the results to encouraging indicators of the University’s growing research strength and institutional standing, noting that sustained investment and continuous improvement remain essential.

He listed other notable accomplishments in the Scimago rankings to include: Animal Science and Zoology that earned it second in Nigeria and 50th in Africa.

“Surgery: second in Nigeria and 10th in Africa; Veterinary Science: third in Nigeria and 36th in Africa; Mathematics: third in Nigeria and 43rd in Africa; Library and Information Science: third in Nigeria and 10th in Africa.

“Computer Science: fourth in Nigeria and 73rd in Africa; Physics and Astronomy: sixth in Nigeria and 69th in Africa; Arts and Humanities: sixth in Nigeria and 47th in Africa,” he stressed.

The boastful VC expressed that the recorded progress was deliberate, intentional and collective.

He said the management was able to consolidate the University’s tradition of stability, academic excellence, and peace while improving digital infrastructure, staff and student welfare, research, innovation, teaching and learning, campus facilities, and external partnerships.

“Our ambition has not been to depart from what has worked, but to strengthen it, extend its reach and prepare the University more confidently for the demands of a changing knowledge economy.”

“The 41st Convocation is therefore both a celebration and a moment of reflection. It gives us an opportunity to recognise what we have accomplished, acknowledge the people whose work made it possible, and identify the foundations on which we can build the next phase of progress.”

“We transformed our digital infrastructure. We have made deliberate investments to make UNILORIN a truly smart campus.”