Ahead of its 26th convocation ceremony, the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, has announced Aminat Yusuf as the best-graduating student with a cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 in its 40 years history.

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The university said Ms Yusuf from the Faculty of Law will be rewarded with N500,000 cash prize.

The Vice Chancellor of LASU, Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, who disclosed this in her address at a pre-convocation press briefing on Wednesday, said the ceremony would feature those who graduated during the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic sessions.

Mrs Olatunji-Bello noted that the university would graduate 10,183, of which 282 students obtained First Class in different fields.

She explained that while Ms Yusuf tops the first-class graduates for the 2021/2022 academic session, Feyisayo Lopez from the Department of Physiology, College of Medicine emerged as the best for the 2020/2021 session with a 4.91 CGPA.

The VC said apart from other activities lined up for the event, the convocation lecture titled, “The Impact of Digitalisation on Higher Education in the Digital Age”, will be delivered by the Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, on Tuesday, 20 June.

Mrs Olatunji-Bello also disclosed that the Executive Secretary would chair the convocation lecture, National Universities Commission (NUC), Abubakar Rasheed, and that the award of diplomas, first degrees, postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees will hold on 21 June.

She further noted in the statement that apart from the 121 postgraduate students, who will be awarded doctorate degrees, the university will confer honorary doctorate degrees and an appreciation award on eight eminent Nigerians “who have made contributions to the development of LASU and the nation at large.”

The honorary awardees include the former governor, Babatunde Fashola; wife of the state governor, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu; and Saheed Elegushi, Oba of Ikate land in Lagos.

Others are the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; Suleiman Ashade, Daniel Olukoya and Victoria Orelope-Adefulire.

She added that the Senate of the University has also conferred “the title of Distinguished Professor on two respected and accomplished academics in the university”.

The professors are Dapo Asaju of the Department of Religious and Peace Studies and Babajide Elemo of the Department of Biochemistry.

Highlighting some of the university’s achievements in the last 12 months, Mrs Olatunji-Bello said the university was ranked the best State University in Nigeria by the AD Scientific Index in 2022 and also secured 96 per cent full accreditation in the 2022 NUC’s accreditation exercise.

She said: “This is a fulfilment of the first strategic goal of this administration, which is to ensure that all academic and professional programmes are and remain accredited by the relevant bodies.

“We also secured accreditation for professional programmes being offered in the University from relevant accreditation bodies. Of note is the re-accreditation of our Accounting programme by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).”

She added that LASU secured and sustained collaborations with top institutions, including the University of Dundee, United Kingdom; Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, India; Michael Imodu Institute of Labour and Strategic Studies (MINILS), Ilorin; Delta State University; Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, amongst others.