Date: 2020-12-04

Vice Chancellor, Al- Hikmah University, Ilorin, Professor Noah Yusuf, has said the university has explored the opportunities created by COVID -19 pandemic which had earn it the rating of second leading university in virtual learning in Nigeria.

This is just as he said the university will on Saturday graduate 751 students out of which 18 bags First Class honours. "Of these, he said, "240 are in second class (honours) upper division while 402 are in second class (honours) lower division while 91 are in third class".

Speaking at a virtual pre- convocation press briefing cordinated at the instiution's main auditorium, the vice chancellor who listed the lessons of COVID-19, said the institution had used the period of the pandemic to leverage on its ICT and technological advancement. "Part of the lessons we learn in Al-Hikmah university is that any formal education that does not make use of the ICT facilities and knowledge is obsolete and not fit for the current level of our challenges and development," the VC said.

The vice chancellor who announced that the university will from next March 2021, begin a programme in peace and security studies added that the first set of it law students will be among those graduating on Saturday.

He said in view of the roles private universities have been playing in sustaining Nigeria's university education system, it was high time federal government incorporated private universities inTetfund grants.

"We should be incoporated inTettfund, there is the need for government now to come to the aides of private universities , we are not saying you should give us everything, no matter how little," he said. Speaking further, the VC said the institution had also introduced what he tagged "school mentoring" programme aimed at grooming prospective university students from selected public and private secondary schools .

Comenting on the recent killings of farmers by Boko harram in Borno state, the VC described the incident as "babaric and capable of hampering federal government efforts aimed at boosting food security.

"The recent experience is so bitter that people are thinking that how are we going to go about it, no national mourning as if things are normal." He said the institution as part of its contribution to food security has concluded arrangement to commence commercial agriculture at its Atere campus.