UNIZIK Graduates 194 First Class, 16,842 Others At Combined Convocation

The Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State, will next week graduate 194 First Class degree holders as part of its combined convocation ceremony for the 2025 and 2026 academic sessions.

A total of 16,842 students, cutting across different academic disciplines, who concluded their studies at the institution in 2025 and 2026, will be formally presented with their certificates at the ceremony slated to hold at the permanent site of the university next week.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ugochukwu Bond Anyaehie, who disclosed this at a pre-convocation press briefing on Thursday at the institution’s main campus in Awka, said the graduands “have proven themselves worthy in character and learning.”

Giving a breakdown of the statistics, the vice-chancellor said that, out of the total 16,842 graduands, 14,803 would bag first degrees.
Of the first-degree graduands, 194 made First Class Honours, 4,230 made Second Class Honours (Upper Division), 7,992 made Second Class Honours (Lower Division), 1,936 made Third Class Honours, while 65 were in the Pass Degree category.

He said 486 were in the unclassified, medical and professional degrees category, while 2,039 were from the Postgraduate College, comprising 603 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, 1,113 master’s degrees and 294 postgraduate diplomas (PGDs).

Prof. Anyaehie also listed some of the milestone achievements recorded in the past year of his administration.

He said his administration successfully secured UNIZIK’s selection into the Federal Government’s $617.7 million Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme, supported by the Bank of Industry (BOI), Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and IsDB/AfDB.

He said the university had expanded its total bandwidth to 2Gbps via AFD-NgREN, with Galaxy Backbone NOC equipment currently set up to activate an additional 300Mbps.

He also said a TETFund ICT Experience Centre had been established as a cutting-edge hub for artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity and software engineering at Hall 2 of the Digital Library, backed by high-capacity inverter systems.

According to him, the university outfitted its computer laboratories with 200 all-in-one desktops, 20 high-performance laptops, 85-inch and 32-inch interactive smart screens, Intel Xeon Core servers, enterprise network switches and video-conferencing equipment.

The vice-chancellor said his administration eliminated physical clearance bottlenecks by deploying an electronic Online Graduate Clearance System that accelerates the issuance of statements of result.

He said the university had also fully digitised its historical registries, academic results and transcript archives for immediate retrieval and upgraded the VC Student Portal to establish direct, real-time communication between students and management.

Prof. Anyaehie said the university secured full Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) reaccreditation and successfully tripled its MBBS annual admission quota from 100 to 300. He added that the University Medical Centre was being upgraded towards operating as a 24-hour emergency facility.

He said the university had also expanded CCTV coverage and perimeter lighting across the campus while rehabilitating hostel water schemes, restrooms and weekly diesel allocations for power generators.

On academic and sporting achievements, the vice-chancellor said UNIZIK was now ranked joint fourth in Nigeria in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.

He said the university’s debate team won the 13th All Nigerian Universities Debate Championship (ANUDC) for the first time in the institution’s history, while its athletes secured silver and bronze medals at the 12th FASU Games in Cairo, Egypt.

“My charge to our graduands as they step into the world is to anchor their careers on discipline, self-reliance and excellence. They are the living proof that a greater UNIZIK is possible,” Prof. Anyaehie said.