The School of Business of the University of Cape Coast has awarded 186 students at its Dean’s Awards ceremony held on Thursday 25th March 2021.
The award ceremony is an annual event aimed at recognizing the efforts of students who distinguished themselves exceptionally in their fields of academic endeavor.
According to the Dean of School of Business, Prof. John Gartchie Gatsi, the 2020 editions of the Dean’s Awards has seen a decline in the number of awardees from 308 in 2019 to 186 in 2020, which sums up to a 40% fall in 2020 with respect to the percentage accumulated in 2019.
Speaking at the awards ceremony A Chartered Economic Policy Analyst at the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG), Alhassan Yusif Trawule urged the recipients to master the art of infusing extra-curricular activities with achieving academic excellence amidst challenges.
Read also: Integrate Co-Curricular activities into existing academic curriculum-Research Fellow
“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the quality of education have been greater than many expected. Until recently, the only means to reach out to our colleagues and lecturers is through technology, which was in itself a challenge to many of us. The certificate and the memories you will share today will be with you forever. Cherish bit of it because this wasn’t given to you on a silver platter, you worked for it. The need to see this ceremony to be as a motivator, as an event in the process, and not a final event in itself. Being a student is good, rewarding and challenging. The rewarding part of being a student is in achieving academic excellence while the challenging part has to deal with the choices you make to develop the capabilities to achieving academic excellence. These choices can break or make the reward you seek to achieve as a student”, he said.
He further disclosed that “Academic excellence is more than just making good grades, there is a maximum development of your intellectual capabilities, skills and services to humanity. Aside from getting the good grades, you should aim at developing your intellectual capabilities to serve humanity in the little way you can. The thing is that in the end, a good combination of these is what will make you a better person in the work environment or in managing your own business. Nobody wants a book-long person in his or her company, we want people who have high emotional and social intelligence and who can work with people”.
Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. Francis Eric Amuquandoh commended both lecturers and students for the feat they have achieved and urged them to persist in their quest for academic excellence.
“This Covid period, going through online learning, and you have to break intermittently, we know that it has been difficult, so those who have been able to raise up their heads, look, and you need to be celebrated. I want to urge you to continue to work hard where you are, whatever level that you find yourselves as you go higher. They say, the higher you go the cooler it becomes, but it is not so in the education environment. So, if you are in first class, try and work hard to maintain it. I will turn over to my lecturers, the numbers I am witnessing is an indication that you are working extremely hard, and you are bearing fruits. That is the joy of our profession. We don’t get much money, but the beauty of our profession is seeing our students excelling. We are happy to associate ourselves with our students. I will continue to urge you to deliver and give out your best”, he remarked.
The Deans Awards Ceremony was instituted in 2008/2009 academic year to recognize and motivate high performing students from level 200 to 400 with CGPA of 3.6 and above per academic year.
SOURCE: GLORIA AMPOMAH OPPONG/ATLFMNEWS
