Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai in Niger has matriculated 2,222 fresh students into its various programmes for 2013/2014 session and urged to buckle up or face expulsion.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ibrahim Kolo, said at the university’s 8th Matriculation ceremony in Lapai that the new students constituted the largest number of students ever matriculated by the university.

He said the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences had 545 matriculating students; Natural Sciences, 470 students; and Education and Arts, 783 students.

Kolo said the Language and Communication Studies had 298 students, Agriculture; 75 students, while Faculty of Applied Science and Technology; 52 students each.

The vice chancellor, who said that the university had been under severe pressure to admit more students, however, noted that “the school cannot but stick to what the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) recommends.

“We have to comply with JAMB and NUC requirements.’’

The university chief urged the students to take their studies seriously and shun examination malpractice, cultism and other vices.

He said that students who performed below expectation would be shown the way out, stressing that “you are here to learn and to be taught. Anything outside that is a misnomer.’’

Kolo said the authority would not hesitate to expel any student found to have tendered fake certificate for admission, adding that such a student would be prosecuted in court.

The vice chancellor, who said that the IBB University did not conduct Post-Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination, however, told the new students that “if at the end of the first semester examination, your GPA is below one point, you will be put on probation.

“After the second semester, if the affected student did not buckle up, he or she will be expelled from the school.’’

He said the university planned to give scholarship to students with first class and second class upper in an area of need, especially in the sciences, irrespective of their states of origin.

He said that such students would be sponsored to study abroad on a bond that they would return and lecture.

Earlier, the Registrar of the school, Alhaji Samaila Muhammad, administered the matriculation oath to the students. (NAN)