Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola has suspended the award of honorary degrees by the Lagos State University, saying the measure is one of the ways his administration plans to reposition the institution.
Fashola, who is the university’s Visitor, spoke at its 17th Convocation at the Ojo main campus on Thursday.
He explained that awards of honorary degrees had been ridiculed in the country, adding that all manner of persons networked to get honourary degrees to raise their curriculum vitae.
He said, “Honorary degree should be a mark of honour by any degree awarding institution on a person to appreciate contributions made in a specific field of human endeavour or to the society in general.
“The honorary degrees being awarded in recent times have not reflected the field that they add value to.
“We have decided to raise the bar. Our university wants to lead this society to a higher degree of excellence by challenging our people to seek for higher values.”
Fashola argued that awards of honorary degrees should be commensurate with the level of contribution of the awardees to the development of the society.
He said, “What is the basis for honouring people? Do we have electricity? Can we refine our own petroleum products? What are their inventions? If we cannot do all these, why are we honouring people with degrees?
“I have met with the Governing Council and for now, we have suspended the conferment of honorary degrees.”
The governor said the management of the university and the government had decided to concentrate more on repositioning the institution to a first class citadel of learning.
He explained that massive infrastructural development, affiliation and recruitment of renowned academics were being given priority attention.
Fashola added that the recent hike in the fees of new students was another strategy aimed at achieving world class standards for the tertiary institution.
Earlier, LASU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. John Obafunwa, said 22,034 graduates from 2008 to 2011 were awarded the institution’s certificate at the ceremony
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