The Faculty of Arts at the University of Cape Coast has held a Dean’s Award Ceremony to honour outstanding performance of students who have done excellently and scored a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.6 and above.
After a long pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s ceremony saw the massive sweeping of awards by female students from the Department of Communication Studies.
The overall highest CGPA of 3.95 was awarded to Miss Peggy Ekua Coleman, a level 200 student reading Communication Studies.
The ceremony was held on the theme: The Arts and the World of Work: Prospects for Today’s Arts Students”.
The Guest Speaker, Professor Philip Ebow Bondzie Simpson in his address highlighted the need for students to broaden their horizons and not limit themselves to the traditional fields within their faculty.
He emphasized, that there are other available opportunities within the non-profit sector citing a concerning trend emerging in which think tanks are outperforming universities in research, drawing more funding and dominating areas traditionally associated with academia.
Prof. Bondzie Simpson underscored the need for universities to focus more on their research responsibilities.
Urging the students, he said “NGOs in the think tank business need a lot of space for you. NGOs in community development need a lot because there are a lot of good organizations out there, a lot of good people out there that are prepared to fund good service, good community engagement and good research.”
The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo Kantanka congratulated the awardees on their great achievements.
He encouraged them to strive for excellence, push boundaries and pursue their passion with the same dedication and vigour that earned them the awards.
“The future is bright and it is yours to share,” he continued.
Prof. Kwabena Sarfo Sarfo Kantanka further commended the faculty lecturers, parents and guardians for their immense contributions to the success of the awardees.
The guest of honour at the ceremony and member of parliament for Cape Coast North, Dr. Kwamina Minta Nyarku advised students who are not excelling academically to channel their focus to new ventures which may be much more profitable to them.
He said they can explore other extracurricular activities to identify other interests that will enable them to see themselves grow higher.
Dr. Kwamina Minta Nyarku emphasized the need for such students to use the event as a way of pushing themselves better to fall into the awardee’s category.
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Source: Angelina Riley Hayford/ATLFMNEWS