President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the Ph.D. graduands of the University of Lagos of a better chance of employment.
He gave the assurance during the university’s 51st convocation ceremony on Thursday where he was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.
“Those of you receiving the postgraduate degrees are doing so at a period when there is emphasis on the Ph.D. as a basic requirement for the position of lecturers in our universities,” he said.
“You will find that with the establishment of several new public universities by this administration, and the approval of new private ones, the opportunity for employment will be significantly enhanced.”
President also asked them to contribute to the development of the country, noting that Nigeria needs the services of highly trained manpower.
“Let me assure you of our administration’s commitment to providing you with the necessary opportunity for productive and profitable engagement. Nigeria needs you and I’m sure you will not let her down,” he added.
The Ph.D. graduates in addition to other post-graduate candidates represented 50.8% of the total 15,753 graduates of the university during the ceremony.
First-degree programme had a total of 7,754 graduates which represented 49.2% of the total graduated students.
The ceremony with the theme: A Breath of Fresh Air held more than a year after it was initially scheduled to hold, was in March of 2020.
In the first degree category, 31 students graduated with distinction and 281 with first class.
The overall best graduating student Adedeji Alimi of the Mechanical Engineering department finished with a 4.98 CGPA and the best graduating student in humanities Opeyemi Popoola finished with 4.90.
The overall best Ph.D. thesis was done by Moruf Olatunji of the department of Marine Sciences while Mesagan Ekundayo from the department of Economics won the best thesis in humanities.
71-year-old Felicia Marinze from the department of French was the oldest doctoral graduand.
