Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
The Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello on Monday said the university senate and governing council have decided not to award honorary degree to personalities during the 34th convocation ceremony which will hold next week, as such award is not for sale.
Bello, who made this known during the pre-convocation press briefing at the University Senate Chamber, said “going by the rule of the university, anybody who asks for honorary degree from BUK is automatically disqualified. It is not for sale. A number of people have approached us directly or indirectly, but we turned down their requests.
“The university senate and governing council have decided not to award any honorary degree this year. This is not because there are no persons deserving of the honour, indeed, there are so many.
“In order to maintain the very high value and honour associated with such degrees, Bayero University Senate and Council have been limiting the number of honourees, and the years when such awards are made.”
He however said the university will award various degrees and postgraduate diplomas to 8,634 graduands, with 72 first class graduates, including 5,401 first degrees; 70 PhDs; 1,833 master’s degrees; and 656 postgraduate diploma certificates.
According to him, in line with best practices, the convocation ceremony is spread from April 3 to April 7, adding that on April 6, the convocation lecture with the theme ‘Leadership, Security, Democracy and Development Challenges in Africa: Reflections by a Scholar-Diplomat’, would be delivered by the Pro-Chancellor of the university and former Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Alhaji Shehu Malami.
“In the last one year, all the programmes presented by the university for accreditation by regulatory and professional bodies have secured full accreditation. The most recent are 15 undergraduate and eight postgraduate programmes that secured full accreditation status from the National Universities Commission (NUC).”
Bello added that “the university has also maintained its tradition of inclusiveness and of being cosmopolitan in nature. About 8,600 newly admitted undergraduate students were inducted into the BUK family last week. It may interest you to note that these new students come from each and every state of the federation, as well as from some foreign countries.”
He listed the challenges facing the institution to include scarcity of water, inadequate funding and inability of students to pay registration fees.
