University students have been urged to regard education as a lifelong process of acquiring knowledge, skills and shaping personal life for societal good, but not acquisition of certificates and degrees.
Professor Daniel Obeng-Ofori, the President of the Catholic University of Ghana (CUCG) gave the advice at a special congregation and 31st matriculation of the University held at its main campus at Fiapre, in the Sunyani West Municipality.
He said formal education only provided academic qualifications, but lifelong learning equipped students and graduates with prerequisite knowledge to make them useful to society.
Prof Obeng-Ofori said personal development remained a personal responsibility and asked students and graduates to make deliberate efforts to feed and enlighten their minds.
The university conferred degrees on 106 graduates who studied different academic programmes at its Faculty of Health and Allied Sciences and completed in the 2020/2021 academic year.
About 700 new students who had successfully gone through admission processes to start their respective programmes in the 2021/2022 academic year were also matriculated by the university.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori told the students discipline and integrity remained the cardinal principles for personal growth and development, saying with self-discipline and integrity, people might emerge as an achiever irrespective of one’s background.
“Personal achievement and becoming a person of value in society do not just emerge unless you are determined and make deliberate efforts and actions to realize these. So, you must always be resilient and bounce back when you fall,” he advised.
While urging the graduates to go back, work hard and excel in their fields of disciplines, Prof Obeng-Ofori admonished the fresh students to obey the matriculation oath, and cautioned them against examination malpractices and unhealthy behaviours.
Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, the Catholic Bishop of the Sunyani Diocese and Chairman of the Governing Council of the CUCG said the church would not grow weary of providing quality education to young men and women in both the Senior High School and tertiary levels to help shape the nation.
“The Catholic University is committed to establishing a home for academic and technical excellence, providing holistic education and training; discipline and moral excellence and instilling commitment to service in all manner of people who enroll and go through our academic programmes,” Most Rev Gyamfi said.
