By Oluwafunke Ishola
Mountain Top University (MTU), Ogun State, says it will start five Allied Health Sciences programmes to enhance human resources and knowledge in the nation’s health sector.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Elijah Ayolabi, made the disclosure on Monday in Lagos at a news conference on the institution’s forthcoming fifth Convocation.
Ayolabi said the National Universities Commission (NUC) undertook a Resource Verification Exercise for qualitative assessment of the institute facilities and thereafter approved the five additional academic programmes.
He listed the programmes as Nursing Science; Medical Laboratory Science; Nutrition and Dietetics; Public Health and Biomedical Technology.
According to him, admission into the programmes will start in January 2024.
Ayolabi said that the university remained consistent in its quest towards becoming a world class research-intensive institution, developing along the way a considerable track record for achieving high standards in teaching, research and community service.
To consolidate this effort, he noted that the university continued to build partnerships with other institutions, the public sector, industry players, commercial enterprises and crucially, the media.
According to him, the MTU has a Centre for Genomics and Medical Sciences, committed to research and development of local herbs to medicines that support the health of citizens.
Speaking on the forthcoming convocation which will hold on Dec. 21, Ayolabi said that 348 graduating students would participate in the ceremony.
He noted that 329 of the graduating students would be awarded First degrees, two for PhD, one for Mphil. degree, 15 for Masters’ degrees and one for Postgraduate Diploma.
Explaining further, he said that 36 graduating students would be awarded First Class degrees; 155 Second Class Upper degrees, 120 Second Class Lower degree and 18 Third Class degree.
According to him, Miss Judith Iganya of the Department of Economics with 4.94 cumulative Grade point Average, emerged as the overall best graduating student.
The vice-chancellor said that the former Governor of Akwa lbom State, Mr Emmanuel Udom, would deliver the Convocation Lecture with the title, “Optimising your potential in a challenging future”.
“Mountain Top University graduates are special in a lot of ways; besides their courses of study, the graduates have acquired other skills.
“They skills include entrepreneurial skills, playing musical instruments, farming skills, baking and culinary skills, fashion and tailoring skills, technical skills in computer and hardware, and many more.
“The university has designed these extra programmes to empower the students to stand out through self-employment in an already saturated global and Nigerian labour market,” he said.
Ayolabi appealed to the Federal Government to address the economic and security challenges facing the country, noting that solving these would discourage migration and retain the best brains in the country.
(NAN)
