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The University of Cross River State (Unicross) Alumni Association has launched a scholarship scheme for the best second year student in all the departments in the institution.
The National President, Dr. Inyali Peter, in a statement announcing the official kickoff of the programme said that the programme was not completely new but a revival of a policy that was initiated during the tenure of Prof. Ekanem Ikpi Braide as Vice Chancellor.
Inyali said that, even though the maiden edition of the programme under alumni’s sponsorship will concentrate on year two undergraduates, there’s plan on ground to expand the scheme to cover graduates of the University who are running postgraduate programmes in the institution.
According to him, “I’m very excited that today we’re formally reviving one of the best policies introduced by our former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ikpi Braide.
As a way of encouraging new students to take their studies seriously rather than invest their times and energies in ventures that may lead them to not graduating or something, this policy was introduced but stopped at some point possibly, because of the poor financial situation of the University. Because some of us appreciate the importance of such great initiative, we have decided to revive it.
The University is a place where most students will be living on their own and enjoying all the freedom for the first time. This makes them vulnerable to all kinds of things as their minds are preoccupied with many things. So to keep them focused on their purpose of being in the University, we believe that setting a target and making them realise that there’s an incentive that’ll come at the end of every academic session will inspire them to take their studies much more seriously “.
The Alumni President who said that the target is to have at least one beneficiary from each department noted that the scholarship committee that was recently constituted will reach out to relevant offices in the University to work out modalities on how to select the beneficiaries.
“The scholarship committee which is headed by a very disciplined and straightforward man, Dr. Paul Tawo Bukie will work out modalities on how to select the beneficiaries. One thing I can assure you is that even as a President, I’ll not influence a single name. I have told the Chairman that any day I call him to compromise the selection process for anybody, he should expose me publicly.
We want to encourage the culture of competence and meritocracy. Only the best from each department shall be selected and the best must have a CGPA of more than 3.50; that’s is, any department that the result of the best student falls below 3.50 won’t benefit. Again, it’s important to emphasize that the scholarship will be paid directly to the University’s account and not to students. The beneficiaries will only be presented an award certificate and bank teller showing evidence of the payment of their fees.
Other details will be announced by the scholarship committee in the next few days”, he said.
