The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof Adenike Oladiji has said the university is still the best university of Technology in Nigeria; quoting the current ranking of Times Higher Education.
She made the disclosure at the closing of the 33rd convocation ceremony of the institution on Saturday, November 18 during which 1806 were conferred with Postgraduate Diploma, Masters and Doctoral degrees.
About 200 graduated with First-Class degrees out of the 3,491 students who graduated on Friday, November 17. Out of the graduating students 1510, had a Second-Class upper division, 1515 came out with a Second-Class lower while 254 got a Third Class. Only two of the graduating students came out with Pass degrees
Prof Oladiji said, “FUTA emerged as the Third Best University in Nigeria and tenaciously held to her position as the Best University of Technology in Nigeria by the 2024 ranking of the Times Higher Education.
“The table is based on the WUR 3.0 methodology, which is made up of carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.”
The VC also said 26 of the 27 courses on which NUC had carried out accreditation exercise “had full accreditation while only one had interim accreditation. Currently, no programme of the University has been denied accreditation.”
The University Centre for Research and Development according to her has also attracted and managed over One Billion Naira (N1,000,000,000) national and international research grants between 2021 – 2023, involving scholars and postgraduate students.
Giant Strides
The FUTA VC also took time to itemise some of the giant strides of the university and that of some members of staff. She said Dr Stephen Adefegha, an associate professor of Biochemistry at the university was awarded the International Society of Neurochemistry (ISN) supported school grant worth $34,950 to host 27 young aspiring neuroscientists from the African region at the school’s premises.
The university also prides itself in being granted copyright by the Nigerian Copyright Commission for a Geospatial Technology-based Information System Management Mobile Application for Crime Management.
The App was developed by the TETFUND research group led by Prof Joseph Akinyede of the Department of Remote Sensing & GIS in October 2022.
Oladiji who is the first female VC of the university mentioned many other copyrights secured by the institution in 2023 alone.
According to her, FUTA researchers ranked in the World’s Top 2 percent of Scientists. “In the 2022 Edition (Version 4) of the prestigious World Top 2% Scientists Ranking, published by Stanford University, USA, a total of 7 academic staff of FUTA were listed among the Top 2% Scientists in the Career-Long category and 9 academic staff made the list for year 2021 (single year) Impact category released in September 2022.”
The VC informed further that a software named TouchNut, developed by a team led by Daniel Adeniyi, a 400-level student is “now being used to regulate entry and exit of students into the Albert Ilemobade Library and to monitor activities.
The University Librarian, Dr Robert Awoyemi, confirmed that TouchNut had added significant value to the ongoing process to digitize and make operations of the Library fully automated.”
CORE VALUES OF FUTA
While congratulating all the graduating students, Prof Oladiji urged them to keep in their hearts “the core values of FUTA encapsulated in the acronym, I-CARE – Integrity, Creativity and Innovativeness, Accountability, Rationality, and Excellence.
“With these virtues as your watchword, you will have the whole world at your feet sooner than you can imagine. Also, do remember that you are the most important image makers for the University. Please, do all within your might to project FUTA very positively wherever you go.”
Urgent needs
She urged the government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the institutions in the following areas:
- Endowment of professorial chairs in various disciplines to be named after the donors;
- Donation of laboratory equipment and other learning materials;
- Award of doctoral and post-doctoral scholarships and fellowships for staff;
- Provision of lecture halls and laboratories with ultra-modern facilities;
- Institution of prizes and awards for outstanding students and staff;
- Provision of student hostels under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Agreement; and Provision of buses for student field trips.