…As 327 students graduate

By Dayo Johnson, Akure

Ondo state government has earmarked N1billion towards the construction of a senate building for the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, UNIMED.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, gave the cheering news at the 4th convocation ceremony of the first University of Medical Sciences in Ondo town, Ondo state.

Akeredolu noted that “UNIMED was Nigeria’s first specialised medical and health sciences university and its agenda of providing integrated education and research of exceptional quality in all health- related sciences is a game changer.

Speaking through the Commissioner for Education, Pastor Femi Agagu the governor, added that the light of this innovation has now radiated from the sunshine state with no less than seven medical universities that have emerged after UNIMED, with ownership spanning federal, state governments and private individuals.

He said the tremendous progress that UNIMED has made over the last eight years is quite impressive and inspiring. It goes beyond health workforce production and research to also include improving lives at the community level through population level health and development initiatives.

” Towards ensuring that UNIMED, like other state-owned tertiary institutions, has a benefitting administrative facility, the government has earmarked the sum of one billion Naira towards the construction of a senate building for the university.

” Government will continue to support the development of new facilities and infrastructure as more resources become available to facilitate the achievement of the vision of the University to start operating fully from its main campus by December 2024 by which time it will clock 10 years.

The Vice chancellor of the institution, Prof Adesegun Fatusi said the University had graduated 327 students from the undergraduate programmes, a significant increase over the 176 graduands of the 2020/2021 set.

“These graduands include the first set of Medical Laboratory Scientists, set of Nurses, Physiotherapists, and Plant Biologists, and the third and fourth set of products of several other health and life sciences programmes.

According to him, outside the 34 physiotherapists whose degrees are unclassified, 10 graduands are graduating with first class honours, 128 with second class honours(upper division), 125 with second class honours(lower division), and 30 with third class honours.

The Vice-Chancellor announced that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria recently increased the students’ annual intake quota from 75 to 150, noting that the nursing students have consistently scored 100 percent in the council’s examinations in the last three years.

Fatusi said 10 new first -degree courses have been approved by National University Commission and are among the courses that NUC included in the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS) released in December 2022.

The new 10 new courses include Health Information Management, Information Technology and Health Informatics, and Herbal Medicine, Health Care Administration and Hospital Management, Medical Physics, Medicinal Chemistry, and Dental Therapy.

Also speaking, the Pro- Chancellor and chairman of Governing council University of medical sciences, Prof. Ayodele Arowojolu said the governing council is committed to upholding the vision of the founding fathers of the university, which is to make the university a thriving medical and health sciences institution, locally, nationally and internationally recognized for excellence and innovation.