Buhari urges universities to source research funds abroad
President Muhammadu Buhari, at the weekend, urged Nigerian universities to use their management skills to access international research and innovation grants and to use their potential, even as Federal Government struggles to fund universities in a COVID-19-impacted economy.
Buhari, who spoke during the third convocation of Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State, said one of the biggest challenges facing universities in Nigeria and Africa is funding, which he said was partly caused by “prevailing global economic adversities.”
The President, represented by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said Federal Government established FUPRE as a specialised petroleum university in March 2007 as an institution of higher learning to train middle and high-level skilled manpower and relevant expertise for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and for the entire world
He said the government would not relent in its efforts to confront challenges and tasked universities to also “apply management skills to access international research and innovation grants and to exploit its huge potential.”
The President, who also witnessed the installation of the paramount ruler of Remo land, Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi, as chancellor of the university, assured FUPRE management that government would continue to provide infrastructural, research facilities and equipment for the purpose of promoting teaching, learning and research, thereby enhancing growth and development of the university.
He admonished management to apply prudence and accountability in the handling of financial and material resources made available to the university as it devises creative ways to position itself as the one-stop training centre of excellence.
He also charged the university to step up efforts to become a globally-recognised centre for the acquisition of relevant knowledge in the petroleum and allied sectors of the Nigerian economy.
A total of 1,409 students participated in the ceremony. The breakdown shows that 1,201 are first degrees; 101, are postgraduate diplomas; and 107, Masters’s Degrees.
Twenty-four students graduated with First Class, 438 had Second Class Upper Division, 619 graduated with Second Class Lower Division, and 120 had Third Class degrees.
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