By Dayo Johnson

Akure— FOURTEEN students of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, JABU, in Ikeji-Arakeji in Osun State, have bagged first class degrees in various fields.

Twelve of the first set of the graduates that made first class have been given appointments as graduate assistants.

At a briefing ahead of its third’s convocation, Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Sola Fajana, said the university had adopted a policy of employing students of the university that came out with first class degrees to encourage the students.

Fajana said 86 students of the institution bagged second class upper degree while 137 of the students got second class degrees in lower division.

The Vice Chancellor said that those offered appointment were encouraged to proceed to Master Degree programmes.

The 14 graduates who bagged first class in the third convocation and others according to him, graduated in the colleges of agriculture, sciences, humanities, natural sciences and social and managerial sciences.

Fajana said the National Universities Commission, NUC, had fully accredited the entrepreneurship programme of the university, making it the first to be accredited just as the Chattered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, CIIN, and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, endorsed JABU as professional training centre for their programmes.

According to him, the university subsidized by 15 percent, fees paid by biological children of members of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) admitted to the university.

Fajana noted that any church members studying Religious Study and Ministerial Studies would have their fees cut by 50 percent.

He said that the University introduced a general discount of 20 percent of the normal fees to prospective students in some selected programmees that a specific to national development such as Mathematics, statistics, Geography, Entrepreneur and Insurance.

The Vice Chancellor said the convocation would include the conferment of honourary degrees on the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry, Dr. D.K. Olukoya and the Osun state governor, Rauf Aregbesola.

Fajana added that the convocation lecture titled “Contemporary Issues for National Emancipation: the University System as a Catalyst for Innovation” would be delivered by Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe.