The Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Professor Lateef Folorunsho Oladimeji, has announced that the institution will produce 76 First Class graduates at its 15th convocation ceremony.
Oladimeji disclosed this while addressing a press conference to formally kick off activities for the event.
He said the First Class graduands represent 3.5 per cent of the 2,192 students completing undergraduate programmes at the university.
According to him, 1,008 students, or 46 per cent, graduated with Second Class Upper Division, while 996 students, representing 45.4 per cent, earned Second Class Lower Division honours.
The Vice Chancellor added that 112 students, or 5.1 per cent, will graduate with Third Class degrees.
Oladimeji further disclosed that a total of 2,833 students will be awarded degrees, comprising 2,192 undergraduate students and 641 postgraduate graduands.
He said the postgraduate graduands include 77 Postgraduate Diploma recipients, 485 Master’s degree holders and 79 Doctor of Philosophy graduates.
The Vice Chancellor said the convocation ceremony, which began on Friday with a special Juma’at service at the university mosque, would climax with the award of degrees and diplomas across faculties over two days.
He added that the convocation lecture would be delivered by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin.
Oladimeji said the ceremony would also feature the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees on two eminent Nigerians, as well as the commissioning of completed projects across the university’s campuses.
He said the convocation marked the first he would preside over since assuming office as the sixth substantive Vice-Chancellor in July 2025.
He described Al-Hikmah University as Nigeria’s first Islamic faith based university, noting that the institution has sustained a tradition of academic excellence, moral discipline and community service over its more than 20 years of existence.
The Vice Chancellor disclosed that his administration is anchored on an implementation framework known as STRESS FREE, a ten pillar strategy designed to strengthen governance, staff welfare, research output, funding, security, entrepreneurship and global ranking.
According to him, the university recently presented 28 undergraduate and five postgraduate programmes for reaccreditation by the National Universities Commission, alongside separate assessments by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the Council of Legal Education.
He said the regulatory bodies expressed satisfaction with the quality of infrastructure, staffing and curriculum delivery, describing the outcome as a boost to the university’s academic standing.
On global visibility, Oladimeji revealed that Al-Hikmah University ranked second in Kwara, third in North Central Nigeria and 15th nationally in the 2025 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.
He also announced the university’s first ever inclusion in the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, describing the development as a major step towards international recognition.
The Vice Chancellor said management has approved incentives to strengthen in-house research grants and reward staff who publish in high impact journals or attract national and international research funding.
He highlighted several collaborative research projects, including a European Union supported DIGISOL agricultural project, and noted that Al-Hikmah scholars were ranked among the top 200 proposals in the latest TETFund National Research Fund exercise.
On infrastructure, Oladimeji said the College of Health Sciences complex, a Faculty of Management Sciences building and a postgraduate hostel have been completed adding that the nursing complex, faculty buildings for law and humanities, an engineering workshop and an expanded cadaver laboratory are under construction.
The Vice Chancellor appealed to alumni, philanthropists and corporate bodies for support, citing the financial strain of rapid expansion and rising student population.
Addressing security, he said the university has strengthened safety measures across its campuses in response to the nationwide kidnapping threat and expanded on campus accommodation to nearly 4,000 bed spaces to reduce off campus exposure.
He disclosed that 58 academic staff members have benefited from the university’s staff development grants since 2021, with over 70 percent of lecturers now holding PhD degrees.
Oladimeji also announced approval from the National Universities Commission for the university’s Centre for Distance and e-Learning.
