Published 4th Nov, 2021

By Tola Owoyele

A set of master’s students who graduated from the University of Lagos (Unilag) have cried out over the seemingly endless delay in the release of their certificates since they graduated from the school three years ago.

The students, who belonged to the 2017/2018 set, complained that the school’s refusal to issue them the certificates has caused them a lot of pain, and has also made them miss out on many offers in their quest for progress at their work places and chosen career paths generally.

“We graduated in 2018 but our convocation year was 2019. A week after the convocation, we were directed to undergo the mandatory clearance exercise in other for us to be able to receive our certificates on time, and we all did,” said one of the affected students, who chose to be referred to as Philomena, to FIJ.

Philomena also said that after the students from her set had completed the exercise, they were told to give the school some time for their certificates to be made ready.

“Initially, I thought there was no cause for alarm. But later, days became months, months became years, and here we are, still unable to collect our certificates,” she added.

Frank (not real name), another affected student, told FIJ he has been hindered from making progress at his workplace because of the issue.

“I have missed out on many opportunities, including promotion at work because of this issue. Some of my course mates back then have even given up hope on ever getting the certificates,” Frank added.

Frank also added that three sets of master’s students that graduated after his set have been issued certificates by the institution.

“The fact that the school is making a whole lot of us suffer stagnation is frustrating and unacceptable,” he said.

When FIJ contacted Professor Alabi Soneye, the Dean of Postgraduate Studies for the school, he confirmed the incident, saying it was due to the improper processing of results by some departments during the e-production of certificates.

“Some three hundred masters/ Postgraduate students and fifteen PhD students certificates were still pending as of last week when we decided to set up a committee on it,” he said.

“Before now, the situation was more serious more serious than this. We have however been able to treat majority of this issues successfully. I can assure you that the ones that are pending would soon be resolved very soon as well.”

FIJ also spoke with an officer at the school’s Exams and Records office, who simply gave her name as Ruth, on the issue.

“There were some certificates that we were unable to issue out for some of the 2019 students,” she said. “However, we are presently working on printing them out as soon as possible.”

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