Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, has won a N21 million grant to design drone to tackle petroleum pipeline vandals in various parts of the country.
Speaking with journalists on the seventh convocation of the institution which will hold next Saturday, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, said that the Aeronautic Engineering department of the institution won the grant.
The VC who said that a total number of 1,196 students are graduating this year out of which 25 are in First Class category, added that 592 are in Second Class Upper, 533 Second class lower division while 46 students are in third class division.
He said that a total of 151 students would be awarded Master’s degrees while five would go home with Doctor of Philosophy.
Na’ Allah who is the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the university and who would be completing his two-term tenure by July said the number of students of the school had grown from 500 started with 10 years ago to 15, 000.
He said that the school had enjoyed a most stable academic calendar in the last 10 years as no crisis affected the calendar.
The Vice-Chancellor said that the school which had pioneered courses such as Aeronautic Engineering and Advance Military studies in tertiary institutions in the country had also won a huge sum of money from the British government to design some incubators.
He said that the school has signed an MOU with the Nigeria Air Force to design and repair damaged Military equipment.
Speaking on the management of the institution, without government participation, Na’ Allah said, “efficient system for internal generation of the fund and prudent management of resources enable the school to run without subvention which the state government stopped five years ago when there was a drop in the federal allocation to the state”
He, however, urged the government to restore the allocation saying this would enable the university to carry out many of its academic programmes which it was designed to accomplish.