UNIBEN grants 500 overstayed students amnesty to graduate

The University of Benin(UNIBEN) senate has granted 500 students who have overstayed in the university amnesty to graduate.

This was disclosed by the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Lilian Salami, at a briefing in Benin on Monday as part of activities to mark the 46th and 47th convocation of the university.

According to the vice-chancellor, the event will also be used to mark the university’s 51st Founders’ Day and golden jubilee ceremonies.

She also said that 125 students bagged First Class degrees and 2,794 bagged Second Class Upper degrees in the 2018/2019 academic session while 157 bagged First Class and 2,631 bagged Second Class Upper in the 2019/2020 academic session.

She said: “The cases of more than 500 students who have overstayed in the university were looked into by the Senate and granted ‘amnesty’ to graduate from the system.

“The figure available put our teaching staff at 1,779, while the number of non-teaching staff was approximately 6,063. With the continuing embargo on employment, we then began the process of sourcing, from among non-teaching staff, qualified members of staff who were subsequently redeployed to the teaching cadre.

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“The administration did not stop there. As of today, over 200 adjunct lecturers have also been appointed to bridge the gap in teaching position.”

The VC added that the UNIBEN would be conferring Honorary Doctorate Degree on Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma; Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; Dr. Natalia Kanem; Mr. Oluwakemi Pinheiro, SAN; Dr. Thomas Illube, while the former Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Osayuki Oshodin, would be unveiled as Professor emeritus.