By: Jimmysayo Adebiyi.

Federal Minister for Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, will deliver the 33rd Convocation Lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), next Thursday.

This comes as 195 students completed their various programs at the university with first-class Honors.

The minister will speak on the lecture titled ‘Knowledge and Research: The Foundation of a Prosperous Economy.’

Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Adenike Temidayo Oladiji, disclosed this on Friday at a news briefing heralding the 33rd convocation of the institution, which will conclude next week Saturday.

Oladiji mentioned that the first-class students are among the 3,491 students who will be conferred with first degrees in the nine faculties at the forthcoming convocation of the institution.

The first female Vice-Chancellor of the institution revealed that out of the total number, 195 students have first class, 1,510 have second class honors (upper division), 1,515 students have second class honors (lower division), while 254 and two students are graduating with third class and pass, respectively.

The vice-chancellor added that Miss Oluwanifemi Favour Olajuyigbe, a student of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, is the best graduating student with a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.93.

She further disclosed that the university will also confer Postgraduate Diploma, Master, and Doctoral degrees on 1,806 graduates.

The Vice-Chancellor, who revealed that FUTA products are globally recognized, announced that efforts are underway to catch up with trending artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

According to her, ‘Postgraduate Diploma – 490, Postgraduate Diploma in Management – 61, Master of Business Administration – 86, Masters – 940, PhD – 229.’

‘The 33 Convocation Ceremony begins today and peaks on the 17th and 18th of November with the award of Diplomas and certificates, first and postgraduate degrees.

FUTA aspires to be a world-class University of Technology and a Center of Excellence in Training, Research, and Service Delivery. Currently, we have active collaborations with universities in the USA, UK, Germany, China, Brazil, India, and Ghana. The details are in FUTA’s Giant Strides XI.

Visiting professorship and scholar positions for academics from the Diaspora have been instituted to enrich the quality of training and research in the University. Currently, 19 scholars have been engaged. They are from South Africa (6), Namibia (1), USA (1), UK (4), Canada (2), Germany (1), Malaysia (1), and Australia (2), New Zealand (1).'”