As the University of Guyana held its 45th convocation ceremony, graduates were urged to give back to their country with diligence, dedication and efficiency by feature speaker Justice Carl Singh.
While Singh noted that graduation was a moment of great pride and academic success, he told the graduates “The time has come for you to give back to Guyana. By doing so, you and all others would be giving true meaning to being a Guyanese.”
The university turned out 1430 graduates, including the first batch of dentists, at this year’s ceremony.
But while the chancellor of the judiciary called on graduates to find their inner patriot, he pointed out that the university has a valuable role in the national development of the country. The three principles governing any university, Singh stated, were the right to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to follow wherever the search for truth may lead, the tolerance of divergent opinions, and freedom from political interference.
“While the focus of the university on sound academic training for those who enrol here in the pursuit of higher education cannot be overemphasised, I make bold to say that the university not only exists for itself but also for the benefits it brings to our people and our country,” Singh said.
“And it is for this reason, the university’s curriculum structure and development ought to recognise its responsibilities in the common endeavours of human development, and social, economic, cultural and technical advances. The university in carrying out its responsibilities should be vibrant in its plans and programmes, but more importantly, it must be autonomous and must have academic freedom.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds presents valedictorian Vineeta Persaud with the President’s Medal for being the best graduating bachelor’s degree student
“University autonomy has been defined as the freedom of the university to govern, appoint key officers, determine the conditions of the service of its staff, control students admissions and academic curricula, control its finances, and generally to regulate itself as a legal entity functioning in accordance with its statutes,” Singh explained.
Meanwhile, Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Compton Bourne said that despite the handicaps imposed on the university by its constant state of financial under-provisioning and uncompetitive salaries, the university has success stories that make it feel proud of the graduates it turns out.
“It is particularly gratifying to learn that the alumni continue to excel in post graduate studies at foreign universities in varying fields. Their success should be a challenge to the private and public sectors to loosen their purse strings and expand the capacity of the university to provide high quality tertiary education,” Bourne said in his address.
Highlighting how the university is working towards development, Bourne noted that the university has been given a grant of 150,000 Euros from capacity building in Amerindian villages, as well as a smaller loan for enhancing participants’ responsiveness, accountability and conflict management through training.
The university’s strategic plan also includes an agreement with the World Bank and the government for a Gy$10 million science and technology support project, which will directly address education quality issues by supporting curriculum reform, infrastructure rehabilitation, and institution capacity in selected areas. For the university to succeed, however, Bourne noted that it must “be an environment in which expression of opinions and argument is characterised by good manners… and the absence of malice and bias.”
The University of Guyana’s Class of 2011 saw Vineeta Persaud from the Faculty of Natural Science receiving the President’s Medal for being the best graduating bachelor’s degree student.
Other prizes included the Chancellor’s Medal which was awarded to Ravina Devi Ramesar from the Faculty of Social Sciences; Ricardo Major received the Council of the University prize and the KA Juman-Yassin Sport Award.
The Prime Minister’s Award went to Michael DeSantos of the School of Medicines and the Doctor Cheddi Jagan Award for Dental Surgery went to Neromini Fagu who graduated from the Bachelor of Science dental surgery programme with distinction.
This is the first year that the university produced a batch of dental graduates.
As the University of Guyana held its 45th convocation ceremony, graduates were urged to give back to their country with diligence, dedication and efficiency by feature speaker Justice Carl Singh.
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