August 30, 2007

Diplomas and HIV Test Results In Hand...

AIDS activists and health officials in Nigeria are speaking out against a private Christian university’s practice of requiring its students to take HIV and pregnancy tests.

Covenant University, located in Otta, a town near Lagos, began demanding that students take HIV (and pregnancy, if they are women) tests earlier this year, as part of its “Total Man” program—an initiative that seeks to ensure that graduates leave with both high academic and moral standards.

Any female students who are found to be pregnant, and who cannot prove that they are married, face suspension or expulsion. Reports that the university required a negative HIV test for graduation have circulated, though the school’s spokesperson has denied this claim.