The first private university in Niger State, Newgate University, Minna, the state capital is set to graduate 207 students, with 14 of them emerging with first class degrees at its maiden convocation on Wednesday next week.

The school's vice chancellor, Professor Sadiq Yusuf, disclosed this at the pre-convocation news conference yesterday in Minna, where he reeled out the programmes for the event.

He said the graduands comprised 14 first-class, 81 second-class upper division, 88 second-class lower division and 24 with third-class degrees.

Yusuf said the university has grown since its inception by increasing its enrolment from 350 to 2,000, full accreditation of 10 programmes, professional accreditation of Nursing and Medical Laboratory Science programmes, as well as a 79 per cent pass rate in the recent Nursing Council Examinations.

The vice chancellor said plans were on to introduce new programmes such as BSc Artificial intelligence, Data Science and Community Health.

He said the school of postgraduate studies and centre for distance electronic learning would soon commence to bolster academic excellence in the university.