A young Nigerian graduate named Chijoke Ekechi has won a scholarship to earn an Automation and Artificial Intelligence doctorate degree from the Tennessee Technological University in the United States without having a Masters degree.

Chijoke Ekechi bagged his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Covenant University, Ogun in Nigeria with a strong Second class upper credit. His academic excellence earned him a scholarship to study his PHD in Tennessee Technological University in the United States.

Chijoke said the scholarship will enable him to take his Masters degree and PHD at a lesser period of time. He stated that the scholarship allows for Master’s degree which then automatically transfers its credit units to the PhD.

“If you don’t have your master’s degree, you would be allowed to do it so you can have your Masters Degree. Then, when you are done, you transfer your credits in master’s to a PhD. So, rather than starting your Ph.D afresh, you start from third year of your Ph.D.,” he said.

“So, instead of spending the usual six to seven years, you just spend 3-4 years in bagging a PhD. It was grace because I know a lot of people who were more qualified than I was and still did not get an offer as good as this,” he added.

Chijoke described his achievement as an unexpected and grace filled one because there were many more qualified candidates than him for the scholarship but he was still chosen while they were rejected.

Talking about how he was able to secure the scholarship, Chijoke said that he spent adequate time in surveying and planning the steps for the scholarship and that was what made it easier for him to achieve the  success when the opportunity presented itself.