The management of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt has said there is no going back on its policy of ‘no school fees, no examination’.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nlerum Okogbule, stated this at a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday, ahead of the university’s 34th convocation scheduled from December 8, 2022 to December 10, 2022.
Prof. Okogbule said while it was a difficult decision to arrive at, the policy was already yielding positive fruits to the delight of the management.
He said, “It is necessary to mention here that the policy of no school fees, no examination has paid off handsomely. We were in a very sad situation where some students who are in level 300 had not paid fees at all, and so did not have matriculation numbers.
“They were writing their names on sheets of paper during examinations. That is clearly non-acceptable to us as a university. It is on the strength of that we insisted that students have to pay their fees,” he said.
The VC however said management had extended the window to enable more students to pay their school fees before the policy was enforced.
According to Okogbule, “From this (no fees, no exam) exercise, over 3000 who would otherwise not have paid their fees, have done so now.
“Three local government areas eventually came to the rescue of some of their students, particularly final year students’. We have as agreed scheduled special examinations for those who paid their fees later. That examination will be held from Monday December 12, 2022. So, the policy still stands.”
He disclosed that a total of 4, 982 students would be convoking, with 56 students bagging first class honours, 821 bagging second class upper division, while 1, 877 made second class, lower division.
The other statistics reeled out by the VC showed that 524 students made third class, 36 with pass division, bringing the total for first degrees to 3, 314.
In the post graduate degree category. Prof. Okogbule said, “508 bagged post graduate diploma, while 874 bagged Masters Degrees respectively.”
Continuing, he said the high point of the convocation this year would be the award of honourary degree of Doctor of Law to two distinguished sons of Rivers State namely, His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers State and visitor to the university.
“Also, Hon. Justice Iche Ndu, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council. These individuals have contributed immensely to the transformation of this university in the last seven years.”
Okogbule further said the convocation would be preceded by a lecture to be delivered by former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Joseph Ajienka on Thursday, December 8, 2022.
“The topic of the lecture is ‘Nigerian Universities and Leadership Value Proposition: Having Graduates Worthy in Character and Learning’.
He said the university has been creditably performing its main task of producing high level manpower to meet the aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta, and respond to the peculiar environmental challenges of the region and Nigeria as a whole.
