The Rector, Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora, Professor Gbemiga Adewale has revealed that he would be leaving the College better than he met it.
The Rector made this known during the 11th Matriculation ceremony for fresh students of the institution, at the 800 Seater lecture theatre of the College on Tuesday, May 28, 2019.
The Rector in his speech explained that the College was running five programmes when he joined the institution, but as of today, it now runs 31 accredited programmes approved by the National Board for Technical Education ( NBTE ).
He added that the College has fully migrated from Monotechnic to Polytechnic and has gained the recognition of the National Board for Technical Education, Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund ( TETFund ).Adewale hinted that on Thursday, May 23,2019, the Oyo State House of Assembly passed into law, the amended law establishing the College which now reflects the Status of the institution as Polytechnic, giving room for the head of the institution to be addressed as Rector and the Academic Board to now be addressed as Board of Studies and so on.According to him, “the College has witnessed changes in all its ramifications, as we speak, the College could boast of running agricultural, engineering, technological and Management oriented programmes, such as; Public Administration, Business Administration Accounting, Statistics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Office Technology and Management, Library and Information Science, Computer Science, Science Laboratory and Technology among others.”
In his words, “this Matriculation ceremony is historic for me because, it is the last matriculation ceremony that I will be addressing as the Rector of Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora having served as the head of institution for seven years. I therefore, return all glory and praises to the Almighty God for how far he has helped me.”Professor Adewale who noted that the Management would continue to provide all round academic, intellectual and character molding environment for the Students, tasks the new intakes to be serious with the the Vocational, Skill acquisition and Entrepreneurship programmes that they would be exposed to in their course of learning on campus.
He maintained that white collar jobs are not readily available, while stating that the paradigm has shifted to skill acquisition, vocational training and entrepreneurship. The Rector posited that the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora has comparative advantage in these areas over other institutions.He therefore, congratulated the Students, while admonishing them to shun all acts of gangsterism, cultism and indecent dressing, as anyone found would be made to face Students’ Disciplinary Committee.
In his goodwill message, the Zonal Coordinator of JAMB, Ibadan, Mr. Olusegun Kuye lauded the initiatives of the college on skill acquisition, vocational training and entrepreneurship.
He therefore tasked the students to make the best use of the opportunities.
Earlier, the Registrar, Mr. Niyi Fehintola had administered the Matriculation Oath on the 1,433 students admitted for the 2018/2019 academic session.
