The Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), at weekend, held its maiden graduation ceremony for a total of 1,176 students who have successfully completed their master's and diploma programmes from the school.
The number comprised 218 masters and 958 diploma students who pursued courses including Strategic Planning and Management, Development Management, Development Communication, Environment and Resource Management, Development Studies, and Community Development among others.
Addressing the graduating students at the ceremony, Madam Gifty Twum-Ampofo, a Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), charged the graduates to use the skills they had gained from the school to create job opportunities for members of the society rather than hunting for opportunities.
She said the central purpose of tertiary education was to equip students with the requisite knowledge and skills to be able to identify and create opportunities for society and bridge development gaps for the benefit of the society they lived in.
“Go out there and prove to the world that you are deserving of the degrees you have been awarded. We are not expecting anything mediocre from you but we expect excellence”, she admonished.
Madam Twum-Ampofo assured the university community that she would take steps to ensure to completion of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) library project at the SDD-UBIDS to help improve the quality of education at the school.
She commended the university’s management of the innovations they were employing improving staff and student performance at the school and said it would attract other universities to learn from the SDD-UBIDS to also implement those innovations in their schools.
Professor Philip Duku Osei, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the SDD-UBIDS observed that the development of the university had come about as a result of the staff development policy of the university.
He said the faculty members had been encouraged to develop high-level research products and publish them in reputable journals and said that was the one magic that had improved staff performance, their promotion, and the ultimate development of the university.
“The reciprocal action of putting place a re-engineered of processing, promotion applications and having a quick turnaround of research reports has ensured that within a matter of four to five months, the results of applications are announced. This has led to a level of motivation not seen before on this campus”, the VC explained.
Prof. Osei expressed hope that the SDD-UBIDS would place itself in a position to create solutions to the myriad of developmental programmes, particularly in northern Ghana.
Mr Philemon Nangdogee emerged as the overall best-graduating student while Miss Vivian Larbi emerged as the best-graduating female student.
Mr Nangdogee received an amount of GH₵1,000.00 from the school and GH₵2,000.00 from the University Council Chairman while Miss Larbi took home GH₵1,000.00 from the school, GH₵2,000.00 from the council chair and a laptop computer from Fidelity Bank.