The European Union Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Gautier Mignot, and the Polish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Michal Cygan, have been scheduled to speak at different ceremonies as part of activities marking the 16th Convocation ceremony of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State.
EU diplomat, Mr Gautier, will be delivering the 4th Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Lecture, with the theme, ‘Sustainable and Climate Resilience Future: Beyond Rhetorics’, scheduled for Wednesday, while the Polish Ambassador, Mr Cygan, will speak on ‘Building innovative minds and bridges for shared prosperity’ at the convocation lecture on Friday.
Thursday will be the day for the interdenominational service and engagement session between the management and the students.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Kate Omenugha, made the disclosure on Tuesday at the VC conference room, COOU- Igbariam, during a press conference to mark the year’s Convocation ceremony branded the ‘Diplomatic edition’.
3,155 undergraduates and 803 post-graduate students are expected to participate in the Convocation ceremony to be held at the Igbariam campus of the University on Saturday.
According to Omenugha, the 16th convocation is significant as it marks her first convocation as the first substantive female Vice Chancellor of the university, as well as gives credence to the eloquent strides of the university under her administration to build bridges that will unleash the potential of the institution.
“We want to break the jinx and join other forward-looking universities in making the convocation exercise an annual ceremony so that graduates can tidy up their programs with the institution and proceed with their lives,” she noted.
The VC noted that the university is on the rise in terms of visibility, with over 50,000 applicants in the 2025/2026 session, against 8,000 applicants in the 2018/2019 session, revealing that about 7,800 persons were accepted in the 2025/2026 session as against the 5,000 accepted in the 2018/19 session.
She said the university is revamping her values with an ethics committee set up to enhance professionalism in the teacher-student relationship and ensure integrity among the lecturers.
“We observed that some of the lecturers are not being fair to the students. We have identified some who we have suspended or withheld their pay. There are some awaiting the establishment of the University governing council so that they can be expelled for the grievous offenses they have committed.
“We no longer dash out what they call ‘political professors’ and this has helped strengthen our education system. Before you can be awarded a professorship, you must merit it through a rigorous process.
“We have also made our academic process very thorough to ensure that the quality improves, and that the students we produce are well-prepared for the market after school. To cushion this policy, we set up the Center for Teaching and Learning to give the students some form of succor with understanding how they can navigate the university’s academic process. They organize orientation programs for new students to enable them to understand the system and be able to navigate it,” the VC said.
Omenugha noted that the university is exploring partnerships with international organizations and institutions to advance its cause and effectively play its role in the comity of tertiary institutions, as well as strengthen collaboration with the industry and the government.
“The university is focused on partnership and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with institutions in the UK, USA, and even Nigeria, to advance the quality of education here. We have also signed an MoU with a Chinese firm to establish a Center for Mandarin at the university.
“We have also introduced Work Aid for students where the students are connected to industries and business outlets to enable them to gain experience and finance,” she noted.
The COOU VC commended the immense support of the State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, for his interventions in turning around the campuses of the university, in the areas of provision of Wi-Fi, roads construction, power, and other utility projects, among others.
She said that with the 5-year strategic plan of her administration, and the work already being put in place, the university is poised to be among the top ten universities in Nigeria and among the first 1,000 universities globally.
She revealed plans by her administration to establish the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies and a business school at the university.
The VC said the university, through its strategy team, has introduced programs for the over 200 professors and other teaching staff in the university, which have challenged them to review their educational curriculum to ensure that they impart 21st-century education to the students.
She also said the institution is leveraging technology to train the university staff, in its bid to move processes from an analog system to a digital system.
Addressing concerns about the high cost of tuition fees, especially for postgraduate programs, the VC revealed that the increases at the school are minimal, given the ongoing transformation at the university, and that the university has not increased its fees in the past 10 years.
Omenugha vowed continued efforts to sustain the university’s growth, calling on well-meaning Anambra citizens and public-spirited individuals to support the institution with funds and infrastructure to enable it to effectively play its role in driving learning and research in the state.
