The President of Presbyterian University, Ghana (PUG) implored the government and the business community to consider university-based developmental research as critical to the “technological advancements for quick socio-economic growth and development” of the country, hence the need for collaboration among business, academia, and industry.
Delivering his speech at the 5th Graduation of the School of Graduate Studies, PUG, the President, Prof Ebenezer Oduro Owusu said Graduate Studies aims at ensuring that the needed workforce is appropriately educated with high moral standards, knowledgeable and technologically sound coupled with good entrepreneurial skills and spirit to contribute effectively to the development of Ghana.
Prof Oduro Owusu argued that Graduate Education “has become extremely important in this new world order of knowledge economy and the need for developing nations to do developmental catch up with the advanced ones” noting that without “well-thought-through high-level postgraduate training, strategic breakthroughs in terms of cutting-edge research will be a mirage”.
Project in Mind; Project in Hand Concept
The President of PUG said in order to develop student’s creativity to compete in the national and worldwide job markets, as well as becoming creators of jobs rather than seekers in sustaining capacity building initiatives, and assure independence in knowledge application and product development, the University has introduced the Project in Mind; Project in Hand Concept (P M P H).
Prof Oduro Owusu disclosed that the Concept seeks to ensure that students enrol with a project in mind and graduate with a product in hand providing the nation with mature and competent brains who will become the next generation of leaders.
A section of the graduating students at the ceremony
Attitude
According to the President of PUG, there is a need to work seriously on human mind-set and produce more result-oriented skill sets that will sustain the nation’s developmental agenda.
He noted that Discipline, Excellence, Integrity, Hard Work, and Faith in God are values that ensure departure from defective attitudes.
Prof Oduro Owusu said factors such as integrity, selflessness, maturity, emotional stability, team work and the ability to work with little or no supervision are significant in the University’s approach to graduate training in order to ensure the generation of a whole quality graduates for the nation.
He appealed to parents to take keen interest in the character formation of their wards from childhood and collaborate with teachers to ensure discipline at all times.
Graduands
The Presbyterian University, Ghana graduated 313 students comprising 185 males and 128 females, who had successfully completed their programmes of study in the areas of Master of Education in Educational Studies, Master of Science in Environmental Health and Sanitation, and Master of Science in Natural Resources Management.
The others are Master of Science in Financial Risk Management, and Master of Public Health having students of diverse background – teaching, finance, religion, administration, sanitation, social work, forestry and health.
A section of the graduating students at the ceremony
The President of PUG congratulated the graduands on the successful completion of their programmes urging them to pay critical attention to the instilled-values of the University so that they can positively effect change in the society.
New Programmes
The University is going through the final phase of the accreditation process by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to be granted accreditation to run PhD in Environment and Development and MBA in Human Resource Management and Development.
The following programmes are under various stages of development and accreditation: PhD in Leadership and Management, Master of Science in Nursing, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, MBA in Project Development, Master of Education Guidance and Counselling, and Master of Science in Information Communication Technology Management.