Thirty-three graduates on Saturday bagged First Class Degrees at the third combined convocation of the Bingham University, Karu, Nasarawa State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the convocation was for the graduating classes in the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 sessions of the 13 years old institution owned by the ECWA Church.
In his speech at the ceremony, Prof. Barnabas Qurix, the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, said that 299 bagged Second Class Upper Degrees, while 278 had Second Class Lower Degrees.
He said that 45 others bagged Third class while two had Pass Degrees.
Qurix said that the university had 19 programmess, with 14 fully accredited, while two had interim accreditation.
According to him, three other programmes have not been visited because they were still new.
Qurix said that the school recently established three additional faculties – Pharmacy, Law and Health Science – and expressed happiness that the school was already rated as a centre of excellence.
In his speech, the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd), said that the school was making excellence its watchword, and challenged the graduates to be good ambassadors.
He particularly expressed happiness that the school was already producing medical doctors, and expressed hope that their presence would address the shortage of manpower in the health sector.
Agwai challenged the institution’s lecturers to pay more attention to researches so as to achieve the university’s goal of proffering solution to society’s problems.
NAN reports that the university, at the ceremony, honoured three Nigerians with honourary doctorate degrees for their contributions to national growth and development.
Among those honoured was Prof. Julius Okojie, former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC).
Also honoured was Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, former health minister, and Mrs. Ruth Shehu Garba, proprietor of Premier Schools, Abuja.
NAN also reports that the ceremony was attended by the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rashid, Esu Karu and Chancellor of the school, Mr Luka Panya Baba, and Sen. Jonathan Zwingina.
Also in attendance were more than 50 Vice Chancellors of various universities. (NAN)