Vice Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Prof. Ganiyu Olatunde, has advised universities in the country against indiscriminate award of first-class degree to their students, saying a situation where some universities would have a significant number of their graduating students bagging such is becoming worrisome.

He however clarified that students deserving of such grades should not be denied.

He spoke in Ago Iwoye while briefing journalits on activities lined up for the 30th convocation ceremony of the institution.

According to him, graduates should be able to defend the certificates and degrees held by them.

“A situation where you have a university graduating a few hundred students and among them, over one hundred bag first-class degrees leaves room for probing questions. No one is saying that students who deserve first-class degrees should not be given. Hard work, dedication and commitment should be rewarded.

“However, the manner some universities go about placing students in that category should be checked. We are graduating 6,257 and only 55 are in the first class category. We are very sure of our products and they can defend whatever certificate and degree they possess,” he stated.

Giving a breakdown of the graduating students who are from the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 sessions, Olatunde said 991 are in the second class upper category, 2,738 in the second class lower level, 1,925 in the third class category, 217, pass category and 135 in the unclassified category.

He added that 140 would bag postgraduate diploma, 486 master’s degree and 103 to get doctorate degree.

As part of the activities to mark the occasion, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede would deliver the convocation lecture titled “Your future is in your hands”, while a convocation play written by Prof. Femi Osofosan would also be staged

Listing some of his achievements since he came on board about five years ago, Olatunde said massive infrastructural development had taken place, while staff and students welfare was given a boost.

He also noted that research was not neglected, and cited the anti-COVID syrup developed in the university

“The syrup has been found to be very effective and we took it to the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, for the necessary scrutiny. Operational issues are the factors delaying final decision on it,” he said.

The VC also debunked the insinuation that the university was involved in illegal admissions

He said, “I have been to JAMB office in Abuja and what happened was that some processes were not completed and we have done that.

“We have always abided by the rules and regulations guiding admission procedures in our university.”