The General Overseer of Redeemed Christians Church of God (RCCG) Pastor Enoch Adeboye has donated a sum of 10Million Naira to the University of Ibadan to construct new Department of Architecture.
This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Idowu Olayinka at the 2018/2019 Matriculation of 3,464 students into the institution.
According to Olayinka, the number of architects in Nigeria, with a population of 190 million is less than that of the city of Berlin, Germany which has a population of 3.575 million noting that he is optimistic that in the next few years Ibadan will start producing her own graduates in Architecture who will not only design individual houses, but whose creativity, imagination and ideas will shape entire city of Ibadan, and other cities in Oyo State, Nigeria and the rest of the world.
He said: “We thank the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of Nigeria, Pastor E. A. Adeboye, a great and long-standing friend of this University, for donating a sum of ten Million Naira to support our new Department of Architecture.
The VC added that total of 46, 836 UTME candidates applied to the university for the 2018/2019 admission exercise, with the highest score at 357 by a candidate in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
He said: “We had 17 candidates from three foreign countries namely Cameroun, Benin Republic, Ghana. Out of all this 22,447 candidates scored 200 marks and above at the UI Post-UTME Screening and they were the only ones considered for admission.
“Invariably, 3,646 UTME candidates were offered admission and are matriculating here this morning. This represents 7.8% of the total number of candidates who initially chose UI as their preferred University.
“In other words, only one out of every 13 UTME candidates eventually got an admission slot here. In addition, 317 Direct Entry candidates have been offered admission out of the 1,109 who applied through that mode. The total number of candidates admitted for the current session thus stands at 3,963. In addition, there are 50 deferred their admission from the 2017/18 session and 1 transfer candidate, thus bringing the total candidates for matriculation to 4014”, he said.
The VC added that it is the first time the university would be holding a joint matriculation ceremony for newly admitted students on the regular and distance learning modes of its educational delivery.
He said: “the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre (UIDLC) is an integral part of the University of Ibadan with a population of over eleven thousand (11,000) learners. The Centre is the Open Distance Learning arm of the university established to offer Open and Distance Education to members of the populace who for peculiar reasons cannot study on the regular/conventional mode of education delivery.
Also speaking, the guest lecturer, Dr. Yemisi Solanke-Koya in her lecture implored the newly matriculated students to strive for excellence and become generation of students who create inventions and country’s manufacturing potentials.
She said: “I charge you as ambassadors of ‘Great UI’ to always raise high its emblem of excellence and assume dignified comportment.