Barrister Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, CFR |
In well over
800 years of leadership training, the university has had the distinction of
producing 92 Nobel Prize winners. Nigeria’s Professor Wole Soyinka, a visiting scholar of the William Churchill
College of the University of Cambridge, is one of them. The list of those who
have made the world a worthy place to live today, who were produced by the
University of Cambridge, is unending.
The
University of Cambridge was established in 1209 and had been awarding degrees
for about 750 years before Nigeria was discovered. As at 2014, the university
had endowment funds of 5.8 billion pounds in cash and another 1.5 billion
pounds in income. That simply is the highest of any university in the history
of the world!
The
University of Cambridge has a total of 15 million books and about 120
libraries. The university’s 31 Colleges have a student population of 11, 820
out of which 6,481 are post graduate students.
The
University of Cambridge pursues a motor of Hinc lucern et pocula sacra, which
in English means: “From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious
knowledge.” Nothing could be more true!
What you
gain from Cambridge is actually precious knowledge. The graduate of the
university still remains a scarce product in this world of over 7 billion
people.
In
Mathematics and Mathematical Physics is the world renowned Professor (Sir) Isaac Newton, whose work, which started in the 17th
Century and ended in the middle of the 19th Century, was continued till the
20th Century by another famous scholar,
JE Littlewoods. He was the one who discovered Geometry in Mathematics. Professor G. H. Hardy and Professor W. V. S. Hodge were all
famous up till 1930 in Mathematics.
In Biology, Professor Charles Darwin propounded the
theory of Natural Selection, a work which was later developed into what is
known as DNA today. The world’s first computer was developed by Charles Babbage as early as the mid18th
century, while Maurice Wikes later
developed the first programmed computer. The list goes on.
In a single
year, 5,228 students scored three A’ Levels at Grade A, which included two As
in Mathematics and Additional Mathematics, competing for admission for B.Sc in
Mathematics. The university rejected 68% of those students with three A’ Levels
at Grade A! Don’t ask me why!
At the post
graduate level, in a good year, the university admits 2% of the total number of
students that apply. Undergraduate admission has increased to about 4% of total
applicants in the last few years.
The
university’s practice is to start any official assembly in Latin. So at the
graduation, for instance, after presentation by the Colleges, the Vice
Chancellor will say “… Auctoirtate
mini commissa admitto te ad gradium——in normine patris at fill et filli et
spritus Sancti, which means in English, “…by the authority
committed to me, I admit you to the degree of — in the name of the father and
of the son and of the holy spirit.”
This clearly
shows a university that has not only committed her workings to God, but also
the graduates who are living for the realisation of their destiny. After
presentation, the graduant is called by name. S/he kneels before the Vice
Chancellor, offers his/her hands to the Vice Chancellor, who claps them and
then confers the degree.
The
University of Cambridge, with her impressive record from evolution and her
trajectory movement, is not only leading the world, but providing the leading
formula to human existence, which has been a global concern from creation.
Leading the
world is an impressive credential. Leading the world for a moment is a golden
record of achievement, but leading the world for ever has the signature of God,
the owner of the universe. This is where the University of Cambridge has
positioned herself without a break for over 800 years of leading global knowledge
discovery. (nationalmirror)
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