UNIBEN grants ‘amnesty’ to 500 overstayed students

The management of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) has granted “amnesty” to at least 500 overstayed students.

Lilian Salami, the vice-chancellor (VC), who spoke at a press conference on Monday, said the students were granted amnesty by the school’s senate to enable them to graduate from the institution.

The press conference was held as part of activities to mark the 46th and 47th convocation of the university in a series of events that will double as the university’s 51st founders’ day and golden jubilee ceremonies.

Salami said that 125 students bagged first-class degrees while 2,794 secured second-class upper degrees in the 2018/2019 academic session.

The VC added that 157 students bagged first class and 2,631 bagged second class upper in the 2019/2020 academic session.

“The cases of more than 500 students who have overstayed in the university were looked into by the Senate and granted ‘amnesty’ to graduate from the system,” the VC said.

“The figure available put our teaching staff at 1,779, while the number of non-teaching staff was approximately 6,063.

“With the continuing embargo on employment, we then began the process of sourcing, from among non-teaching staff, qualified members of staff who were subsequently redeployed to the teaching cadre.

“The administration did not stop there. As of today, over 200 adjunct lecturers have also been appointed to bridge the gap in teaching.”