HGU 9TH CONVOCATION: WE ARE RAISING GRADUATES WHO WILL TURN AFRICA’S RESOURCES INTO VALUE \u2014 VC, PROF. UGAH<\/p>\n
…Says University Moving Beyond Certificates To Skills, Innovation and Integrity<\/p>\n
By Ambrose Obioma Okehi (News Emperor)<\/p>\n
The Vice Chancellor of Highstone Global University, Texas, USA, Prof. Theophilus Aku Ugah, has said the institution is shifting the focus of higher education from mere acquisition of certificates to producing graduates equipped with skills, integrity and the capacity to influence society positively.<\/p>\n
Prof. Ugah, a Professor of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability, stated this in an interview with News Emperor Online after the university’s 9th Convocation and Research Conference held at the LASU Resource Centre, Ojo and the Lagos State Theatre, Igando, Lagos, between Thursday, September 24 and Saturday, September 26.<\/p>\n
He said this year’s convocation theme, *”Beyond Scrolls: Innovation, Integrity and Influence”*, was deliberately chosen to address the gap between knowledge and its application in Africa.<\/p>\n
“Like we said in the theme of this year’s Convocation, we are moving beyond scrolls towards innovation, integrity and influence. We are here addressing the issues of knowledge, wisdom, integrity and of course the need to influence people and society positively,” he said.<\/p>\n
According to him, the core aim of the convocation is to address the gap that exists between knowledge and application. He noted that while Africa is blessed with more resources than other parts of the world, most research conducted by higher institutions is not relevant to the continent’s needs.<\/p>\n
“Africa has got all the resources that we need. In fact, more than other parts of the world. But the research being conducted by higher institutions, some of them are not really relevant to the needs of Africa. We want to produce a crop of students that will take advantage of what we have and turn it into value both for their societies and their countries. That was why we said we should go beyond scrolls to innovation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Prof. Ugah stressed that knowledge without integrity has fuelled corruption across the world, especially in African countries, and there is a need to bridge the gap between certificates issued and the moral courage to stand as professionals.<\/p>\n
“There is something that is missing, a gap between the certificates we issue and the integrity of people being able to stand as professionals and then say no to what is wrong, and to promote what is right. I call it a culture of doing what is right,” he stated.<\/p>\n
He added that the university wants to produce advocates who will drive societal transformation, lamenting that Africa exports its raw resources only to import refined products at higher costs.<\/p>\n
“What we are doing right now is we are taking the resources God has given to us, sending them outside Africa, outside Nigeria. These are refined and then sent back to us at a higher cost. We want that to stop so that we start seeing the value of education that is most impactful in the society,” he said.<\/p>\n
On admission requirements, the Vice Chancellor explained that HGU has minimum requirements depending on the programme, similar to other conventional universities. Prospective students, he said, can get full details on the university website: http:\/\/www.hgu.us.org.<\/p>\n
He also confirmed that graduates of the university are eligible to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).<\/p>\n
Speaking further on what informed the theme, Prof. Ugah said the university observed that Nigeria produces thousands of graduates yearly without commensurate societal impact compared to nations like China and Korea.<\/p>\n
“We have looked around and seen the number of graduates we have produced in Nigeria. You will hear of thousands upon thousands of graduates coming out and we are not seeing the impact compared to other nations like China, Korea and others. The education that most institutions are giving our people is tailored towards certificates. People are trained to graduate and get certificates. They are not trained to have and develop their own skills and qualities that will make them entrepreneurs, that will make them employable. So that is what made us say, let’s focus our attention beyond certificates,” he said.<\/p>\n
On what makes HGU different from conventional universities in terms of entrepreneurship and skill acquisition, he said the university integrates knowledge and skill.<\/p>\n
“You need the skills and you need the knowledge. Knowledge without skill makes you dependent. Skills alone without knowledge can make you misapply knowledge. But when you combine the two together, they make you proficient and competent. So, competence is knowledge plus skill plus wisdom plus integrity and character,” Prof. Ugah explained.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the convocation ceremony, the VC described it as successful, noting that attendance was deliberately smaller than last year’s due to thorough screening.<\/p>\n
“We actually had a lesser number of attendees than last year. It is because of the way we screened the people to make sure that the people we are producing will go out there and make impact. The summary of everything we targeted this year in our academic projection is making impact in our society,” he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HGU 9TH CONVOCATION: WE ARE RAISING GRADUATES WHO WILL TURN AFRICA’S RESOURCES INTO VALUE \u2014 VC, PROF. UGAH …Says University Moving Beyond Certificates To Skills, Innovation and Integrity By Ambrose Obioma Okehi (News Emperor) The Vice Chancellor of Highstone Global University, Texas, USA, Prof. Theophilus Aku Ugah, has said the institution is shifting the focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3588,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsemperormagazines.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}