Sunday 22 November 2015

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: 800 YEARS OF EDUCATING LEADERS ~ DR. JIMOH IBRAHIM

Barrister Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, CFR
In the good old days, the University of Cambridge was called CATAB. If you were studying at the University of Cambridge and people asked you where you were studying, you simply said CATAB. You commanded a lot of respect and you were specially treated in the society. Today, the Cambridge student still commands that kind of respect.

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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