After what was described as ‘a total disgrace’ last year, the University of Guyana has decided to host three Convocation ceremonies this year and abandoned the Sophia Exhibition site venue which was at the centre of the backlash it faced in 2017.
This year, over 1,600 students will be graduating from the institution and two new awards will be presented, according to the University’s Public Relations Department.
The Francille Griffith Award for Excellence in Nursing will be presented to two outstanding nurses pursuing their bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The award, valued at $50,000 each, will be offered annually to a third year and a graduating student.
The second new award is the Dr Cyril Solomon Prize for the student with the best overall performance at first attempt at Applied Microeconomics, Applied Econometrics, Labour Economics I, and Labour Economics II, which were courses taught by the late Dr Solomon during his time at the University of Guyana. The value of the award is also $50,000.
Starting at 09:00hrs on Saturday, November 10, 2018, the University will be hosting three Convocation ceremonies at the National Cultural Centre, according to the statement.
Students from the Faculties of Agriculture and Forestry, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Education and Humanities will be graduands at the first ceremony which will feature guest speaker, Vice-Chancellor of London South Bank University –one of the leading British universities – Professor David Phoenix.
The second ceremony, for the Faculties of Engineering and Technology, Health Sciences and Natural Sciences, will be held at 13:00hrs; the feature address there will be delivered by Guyanese-born Professor Norman Munroe, Director, Office of Student Access and Success and of the Center for Diversity in Engineering and Computing at Florida International University.
The largest of the three ceremonies will be held at 17:00hrs, and it will involve the Faculty of Social Sciences and the School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation – the two largest units of the university.
The keynote speaker there will be Attorney-at-Law Mr Kamal Ramkarran, a University of Guyana alumnus of the Class of 1997, who is a Partner at Cameron and Shepherd, one of the nation’s leading law firms.
The ceremonies will honour graduates from 116 academic programmes.
This year marks the first time that students will graduate through School of Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI) since the launch of the School in 2017. The prospective graduates would have been third-year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences, pursuing programmes that were transferred to SEBI, the statement added.
Additionally, the first batch of students from 12 different programmes offered at the university will be graduating.
The University said its Berbice campus Convocation, where more than 200 students will graduate, will be held on November 17 on the University Square at Tain.
The Keynote address will be delivered by University of Guyana alumna from the Class of 2016, paediatrician Dr Bibi Areefa Alladin-Karan, a Berbician who is a lecturer in the School of Medicine and a practitioner at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education, the extra-mural arm of the university, is scheduled to hold its graduation ceremonies for its four centres as follows: Georgetown Center on November 24; Linden Center on November 25; Anna Regina Center on December 1 and the New Amsterdam Center on December 8, 2018.
