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*Holds 10th convocation ceremony Saturday

By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA

VERITAS University, Abuja, has said 30 of its graduating students bagged first-class in their academic performances.

The university also said out of the 331 students billed for graduation this year,
151 got second class upper division, 130 bagged lower division while 20 others received third-class honours.

The vice-chancellor of the Catholic-based university, Rev. Father Professor Hyacinth Ichoku, at a pre-convocation press briefing, in Abuja, Wednesday, explained that the graduation billed to take place Saturday, will see the graduation of 331 undergraduate and postgraduate students. He said while 60 of them are in the postgraduate class, others are in the undergraduate class.

“Out of this number, we have 30 graduating with first-class,151 with second class upper division, 130 in lower division and 20 in third class honours,” he said.

The Prof. of Development Microeconomics with a primary interest in Health Economics used the forum to thank the university’s convocation committee which he said, “worked very hard to make sure that everything is smooth for this convocation.”

He said a number of some projects would be commissioned during the event.

“A number of projects will be commissioned, we are commissioning our new female hotel,a massive hostel that has just been completed. We are also commissioning the university’s clinic that has just been completed and another male hostel that has also just been completed.

“This is the moment to thank God for His many mercies throughout the last academic year and to thank our staff who have worked very hard to make sure that students gain for their stay in the university.

“They have been thoroughly trained, academically, intellectually and morally. We have prepared them for the world of work. We want to thank our staff and administrators for the work they have done in helping these students to graduate, both at the graduate level and the undergraduate level,” he said.

Prof. Ichoko said the university was consulting embassies for collaboration on its intending critical language programme.

He said so far, the university was running” up to 32 undergraduate programmes and over 18 postgraduate programmes..”

“These are in the faculties of Education, Management, Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, Natural and Applied Sciences and Faculty of Law,” he said.

He said the university was “waiting for NUC Result Verification team for accreditation of Pharmacies, Nursing and Medical Laboratory Science. “

“We also had result verification in PhD in English and Literary Studies, Accounting, Mass Communication and Masters in Counselling.

“We are also starting a new programme in Computer Software Engineering. These are the new courses we intend to begin. Some of our programmes are already running in their PhD levels, for example, Economics and Political Science are already running and graduating students,” he said.

Ichoku, who said the university has always absorbed its first-class materials, added that those with little or no interest in pursuing teaching and research were never forced but supported bin their chosen fields.

“In terms of first-class students who graduate from our school, we absorb as many of them as possible back into our university because we believe these are the future of Veritas University. You can’t compromise the quality of your faculty, and so the more you choose or select the best hands, the better for the university and the more you would guarantee the future of the university. So we are absorbing as many of our first-class materials as graduate assistants into the various fields as possible.

“There are definitely others who will like to pursue other goals rather than teaching and researching. You may make first-class but your calling is not about teaching and researching, you may want to pursue other goals, so we allow them and support them in whatever they do.

” Sometimes, we have to write references for them as they go abroad for further studies, and I can tell you that their reports are very positive. We are happy with their performance. Even from the industry, with the reports we get from the industry, we are very confident that our students are doing very well.

“In fact, one of our students was just invited abroad, to Berlin, to address a global audience on the software they are developing with a team. They did it and we are very proud of them. They are continuing with their exploit in terms of the development and which we are encouraging them to go on”, he said.