By Tony Edike, Enugu

SENATE President, Senator David Mark and Enugu State Governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime have been selected by the Senate of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, for conferment of honorary doctorate degrees in Public Administration at the university’s 14th convocation holding at the Agbani permanent site on November 26.

Also selected to receive honorary doctorate degrees in Business Administration are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Group of Companies, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and the Chief Executive Officer of GGI, Engr. Innocent Akuvue.

Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Cyprian Onyeji, who announced this while briefing newsmen on the activities lined up for the joint convocation ceremony, also said that a total of 47,674 first degrees, higher degrees and post-graduate diplomas would be awarded to students who graduated from the university between 1998 and 2010.

He said that the university which currently has student population of about 25,000 had made tremendous progress despite numerous challenges confronting it particularly paucity of funds.

According to him, the university requires about N1 billion to move the remaining faculties left behind at the temporary site in Enugu to the permanent site in addition to the completion of two hostel blocks and other basic infrastructure for the students.

To surmount the major challenge of physical infrastructure, Prof. Onyeji said that the authorities have reached out to some corporate bodies and well meaning individuals to support the university in its infrastructural needs.

“Most of the challenges we have are all revolving around funding, once we have improved funding we will be able to resolve the challenges. We are not folding our arms because we know that if we continue to wait on the government which also has its own limitations in terms of adequate funding for tertiary education we may not meet up.

“We have decided to do something to be able to reposition the university to the level of greatness we are envisaging; we are reaching out to friends of the university, the alumni, eminent sons and daughters of Enugu State, the private sectors to seek their support. Not just supporting us, we have a lot of packages and opportunities for private investors who want to go into partnership with the university,” the VC said.

He said that to underscore the importance the university attaches to raising funds, a reputable consultancy firm, Scoop and Company Nigeria Limited had been engaged to help in generating revenue under the ESUT Endowment fund to enable them solve existing problems in the university.