The Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Professor Smaranda Olarinde, has revealed that the institution will remain committed to its vision of making students globally competitive.
The VC explained that the constant investment in quality education in line with the vision of the founder, Aare Afe Babalola, was to ensure that students and graduates from ABUAD are measurable in character as well as make exploits in their academic pursuits.
Professor Olarinde, who spoke on Sunday in ABUAD during the 15th matriculation ceremony of the university for the 2023-2024 academic session, urged the new students to settle down and enjoy all the facilities and programmes put in place to make their learning and stay in the school seamless.
She said, ” In a country where mediocrity, failure, corruption, poverty, and excuses for backwardness are fast becoming the norm, it is a disservice for any higher educational institution, as endowed as we are, to produce the regular kind of graduates.
Definitely not when the philosophical construct of our existence as a university was founded on the life and vision of a living legend, one of the greatest examples of humanity ever to grace this continent, our own founder, funder, president, and Chancellor, Aare Afe Emmanuel Babalola, the Baamofin of Yoruba land!
Our role in the educational sector in the country and in Africa is to transform the entire educational system. You do not transform something by doing everything the usual and common way.
” We have invested significantly in quality and functional education for our students to achieve greatness! Why do we go to this extent to create the perfect environment for the education of our students? Definitely not, because we want to be compared with existing universities in Nigeria.
” It is because we want our students, your children, to have the same quality of training and opportunities as their peers across the globe, in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and so on.
” It will interest you to know that we are continuously building strong partnerships with the best universities around the world for added exposure for our students.
Last year alone, some of our students spent time at Johns Hopkins University, USA (the best medicine programme in the world), and at King’s College London, United Kingdom.
” Permit me to say, and with all sense of modesty and gratitude to God, that we at ABUAD have achieved an enviable level of dexterity, expertise, and knack for achieving excellence in the quality of the graduates we turn out.”
The VC further said the university is making waves among a community of universities across the world, adding that its ultimate aim is to make ABUAD one of the first 100 universities. “We will not rest until we have achieved this goal.”
“Our founder has spent and is still spending to make sure that the quality of education and character moulding we offer in Abu Dhabi is on par with what you will get at top-notch universities in the world.
“And is this working? Definitely. 100 per cent! For instance, by being ranked number 221 in the world out of over 7,000 qualified universities globally, ABUAD effectively came ahead of several universities in Africa, Asia, and even Europe and the United States!
“And we are just starting, In a few more years, and by the grace of God, we shall be talking of ABUAD being in the top 100 universities globally, ” the VC said.
Addressing the matriculating students, Professor Olarinde added, ” To the 2023–2024 academic session matriculating students, we unapologetically believe that every one of our students is a genius.
Every one of you. And that with the right nurturing, the enabling environment, the passionate, expert faculty and staff, and your cooperation, discipline, focus, and determination, you all could become geniuses before you graduate from ABUAD in a few years.
“As your Vice-Chancellor, my dear students, I am inviting you to walk with us and collaborate with us in this journey towards fulfilling your destiny.
All you need to achieve greatness is right here, here in Abud. So, remind yourself again of that greatness you are pursuing.”
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