A section of the matriculants. INSET: Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng
THE PRESIDENT of the Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG), Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, has said that values combined with professionalism, are key factors for development.
Professor Obeng, who has spent 40 years working in the university system, spanning over five universities, said only hard work can make Ghana accelerate its development.
He said the incidence of ritual killings, murders, road carnage, craze for quick wealth, and corruption, which has bedeviled the nation, calls for a return to the values of integrity, honesty, hard work, self-discipline, love of neighbour and community.
The academician was speaking at the 18th matriculation ceremony of the PUCG held recently.
The matriculation ceremony was organised over three days, considering the COVID-19 safety protocols, at the Akropong, Akuapem, Tema, Okwahu, Asante Akyem and Kumasi campuses of the PUCG.
A total of 742 undergraduate students, including the first batch of the Midwifery programme, matriculated this year to pursue various courses.
Prof. Obeng entreated the students to participate in all campus activities that are carefully structured to inculcate values of integrity, hard work, selflessness, love of humanity and generally self-discipline, to shape them into productive human beings.
“We are in a generation where knowledge is the primary currency for economic development. We believe strongly, however, that knowledge per se, without values cannot issue in sustainable development,” he said.
In his view, the inculcation of these values in the citizens is important to push the country forward, adding that these values would save the country from greed, tribalism, nepotism, ethnocracy, and in the long run reduce the poverty of the people.
To show the seriousness the university attaches to the inculcation of values, he said, the university gives Bibles which serves as the main source of values to the students.
He said students would rarely fall prey to charlatans who have been parading as men and women of God, mallams and money doublers if they were imbued with biblical values.
Prof. Obeng urged the students to attend lectures, workshop sessions, laboratory work, and clinical, and do all assignments prescribed for the courses in order to receive relevant knowledge and skills.
He also urged the students to take every opportunity they are offered to work closely with their lecturers to receive positive impact.
According to him, the faculty of Health and Medical sciences remains the biggest faculty in the university, in terms of student numbers, with its two-star programmes of Physician Assistantship and Nursing.
These departments, he noted, have made a name for themselves since they are adjudged highly as excellent training centres of health professionals in the country.
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi