50 bag first class, as ABU graduates 12,000 students

Twelve thousand students graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, during its 40th convocation ceremony yesterday. Out of the number, 50 bagged first class degree, it was gathered.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Ibrahim Garba, said ABU is expanding its carrying capacity through introduction of new programmes in order to accommodate more applicants.

He said; “it is in this direction that we now allow more institutions to run degree programmes with our affiliation. We have also introduced distance learning where we admit hundreds of students and we will commence undergraduate studies in the centre. Our faculty of

medicine is now the College of Health Sciences with a Provost as the head. This would also allow for admission of more qualified candidates to specialise in different medical disciplines other than MBBS alone. We are also improving our infrastructure with renovation of students’ hostels, construction of new ones, as well as construction of Centre for Research and Innovation, Foundry Department of Metallurgical and Material Engineering among many others.”

He said as part of their corporate social responsibility, old students of the university are assisting in the area of infrastructural development. He cited the example of the Dangote Group of Companies that is constructing 12 blocks of students’ hostels and Alhaji Sani Dauda, who has constructed a three storeybuilding for the political science department.