The Islamic University College, Ghana (ICUG) last Saturday graduated 220 Bachelor of Arts students in Accra for the 2020/2021 academic year and urged them to remain honest, going out into the job market.
The number, which consisted of 144 males and 106 females, were students who read Religious Studies (23), Business Administration (103) and Communication Studies (94).
There were nine first class honours, 75 in second class upper division, 117 in second class lower division and 19 in third class division.
The 18th congregation ceremony, which also saw the matriculation of new students into the college, was on the theme “Delivering Quality Education in the Midst of a Pandemic: The ICU Experience.”
Prof. Yakubu Awudu Sare, Dean of the Business School, University for Development Studies, in a keynote address, congratulated the graduating class and encouraged them to be truthful wherever they found themselves, “this country is suffocating with unprecedented level of dishonesty.”
He said knowledge without character produced “a doomed society,” hence “let it be known that you can rise to the highest level of society no one had ever imagined.”
Prof. Sare, who stressed the need to adopt technology for higher education as it had become the new world order, called on private universities, including the IUCG, to take Information Communication Technology (ICT) seriously to help make teaching and learning more easier.
He also appealed to the government to assist private universities with the needed ICT infrastructure “such as a strong fiber optic backbones on campuses.”
Dr Ali Arab Khorasani, President, IUCG, said the day marked both an ending and a beginning, adding that “it is the beginning that follows the ending that is the challenge.”
Stressing that the world was currently facing uncertainties and anxieties, he urged the students to continually remember the college’s motto,‘Knowledge, Faith and Service,’ in all their endeavours.
“With this in mind, we will always count on you so that you can express your potential to the fullest and make your contributions for a better future for your society and your country,” he added.
Dr Gamel Nasser Adam, Vice President, Academic Affairs, IUCG, in his report, said the college was poised in exploring and making maximum use of technology to ensure the delivery of quality education.
He said the college was doing so by using its experiences garnered from the lessons taught by the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant need for digitalisation.
The Iranian Ambassador to Ghana, Bijan Gerami, congratulated both the graduating and matriculating classes and indicated that education was pivotal in the lives of all, for which reason they must make the most of what they had been taught and were yet to be taught.
Special awards were given to Iddrisu, Zakiyatu Dumah, who was the overall best graduating student and best student in religious studies; Abukari Fatimata, best student in Communication Studies and Mohammed Saeed Baba, the best student in business administration.
BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR
