The Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Prof. Aaron Atayero, has disclosed that the university is one of the four institutions in Nigeria selected to host the African Development Bank’s Centres of Excellence Coding for Employment programme.
This he said was aimed at equipping youths across Africa with skills needed to secure ICT related employment and businesses.
Atayero disclosed this at the university’s 17th matriculation ceremony for the 2018/2019 academic session.
The programme, according to him, is expected to create over 9 million jobs and train 234,000 students across the country.
The VC added that the university had continued to receive external validations of the positive impact of her unique approach to tertiary education.
“Recently, Covenant entered the 2019 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking and was listed among the top 3% (97th percentile) out of 26,369 universities in the world. In the same ranking, Covenant emerged as the 9th University in Africa, number 1 in West Africa and Nigeria, respectively,” he said.
On the matriculation, Atayero said “globally, matriculation ceremony is significant in the annals of Higher Education Institutions (HEI), because it consummates the students’ admission process and confers on matriculated students the full rights and privileges of studentship, having subscribed to the oath of allegiance to the ethos of the institution.”
He added that the university offered a unique Total Man learning experience to her students, which had made the institution the most preferred private university in Nigeria.
He told parents that the holistic, human development and integrated learning curriculum was aimed at raising men and women who would bring lasting changes to Nigeria and Africa.
Atayero said, “Covenant is built on a sound philosophical foundation that emphasises a shift from form to skill; knowledge to empowerment; figures to future building; legalism to realism; points to facts and from mathematics to life-matics.
“As a faith-based university, Covenant’s philosophy and pillars are deeply rooted in Biblical principles and are directed towards effecting change in the recovery process of our educational sector and the restoration.”
He assured parents at the programme that the students would be tutored with the best of education coupled with character, entrepreneurial prowess, appreciable level of spirituality, imbued with leadership capacity, and life-applicable skills, “Provided they fully subscribe to the demands of the training process of this Royal Academy.”
Atayero told the new students to adhere to the core values of the university, which include spirituality, Possibility Mentality, Capacity Building, Integrity, responsibility, diligence and sacrifice.
” To Our parents and guardians, this matriculation ceremony signifies an undertaking on the part of the university that the eaglets you see today will in four or five years’ time become full grown eagles, with the best education coupled with character, entrepreneurial prowess, appreciable level of spirituality, imbued with leadership capacity, and life-applicable skills,” he
said.
The Chancellor, Dr. David Oyedepo, in his remarks said every child was born as a raw material but only appropriate training could turn it into a treasure.
He urged parents to give their children quality training, adding, “Don’t allow your children make their way to the ditch. Stop them before they get there because those that do not take responsibility today will be liability tomorrow.”
Oyedepo said the university would remain committed to the founding philosophy and through this it would help to give the students good upbringing.
A total of 1,694 students comprising undergraduates and post-graduates matriculated at the event.
