- New Chancellor, Dr Tunde Afolabi To Be Installed Same Day
All is now set at the nation’s first Technical University located in Ibadan to hold its first matriculation ceremony.
The event, meant for the 2017/2018 academic year takes place on Friday, March 9, 2018 and will involve about 180 students.
This was disclosed to PMParrot by the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ayobami Salami on Thursday during an interactive session.
The Vice Chancellor also disclosed that the new Chancellor of the institution, Chief (Dr) Tunde Afolabi will be inaugurated by the Visitor, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on the same day.
According to Prof Salami, “We thank God for the journey so far because we have surpassed the expectations of the founding fathers of this institution. They expected us to matriculate about 50 students.
“Going by the expression of interest in the University, I wish to note that the Technical University has drawn national and regional attention.
“Despite the fact that no candidate had an opportunity to choose our institution in the 2017 admission cycle because we took off four months after they had written the 2017 University Matriculation Examination (UME), the pioneer set of students came from 11 states of the Federation and four geo-political zones, the North East and the North West zones not being represented for obvious reasons.
Professor Salami also took time to talk about the challenges facing the new institution.
His words “We have been able to cope. Infact, that is why we are here. Funding, for example is a general source of challenge for institutions throughout Nigeria. The same goes for infrastructure. We thank our Visitor, Governor Abiola Ajimobi for helping us to keep the focus and for doing all within his ability to support us.
While still in the mood to appreciate those who have helped sustain the Tech-U dream, Salami said “Members of the public are the number one set of supporters we have had. They trusted us and sent in their children to attend a new institution. By doing this, we will always appreciate them.
“We also appreciate the contribution of the media. These professionals helped to publicize our activities all the time. We appreciate this.
“In addition, we thank our students too. They decided to stake their future and stay with us.
“I will not also forget to thank the private sector. They have been very supportive of this project.”
Salami also announced that together with his team of hard working professionals, the institution has been able to ‘walk the talk’.
Said the Vice Chancellor “We have been able to deliver and execute most of our plans for the students. Those who doubt can call the students aside to cross check. Already, they are having a different orientation from students of other conventional universities. We assured them on entrepreneurial training, we assured them that we would train them to speak French apart from English. We are already doing this.”
Packaged by Dare Alesinloye
