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The University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Somanya in the Eastern Region has held a matriculation ceremony for its fourth batch of students admitted for the 2023/224 academic year, at Somanya, with a call on the students to use technology with values and compassion, knowing that there are consequences.
The UESD was established in August 2020 with the first admission of 78 students in January 2021. It was followed by 192 students in 2022, 336 students in 2023 and 330 this year, made up of 166 males and 164 females. The first batch is currently in level 400.
The students are studying courses in natural and Environmental Sciences, Sustainable Development, Urban Planning, Sustainable Construction Management and Technology, Mathematics, Environmental Management, Environmental and Sustainability Science, Natural Conservation and Management, Chemistry and Physics, Physics and Biological Sciences and Physics and Mathematical Sciences, among others.
This year’s matriculation was on the theme “Sustaining the Net Zero Emissions: The Role of UESD”.
The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the university, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, who made the call, noted that the internet had enabled so much and empowered so many, but it could also be a place where basic rules of decency were suspended, and pettiness and negativity thrived.
“Do not let that noise knock you off course,” he told the fresh students and entreated them to measure their impact as students on humanity. Not in likes, but in the number of lives they touched.
He said their being in the UESD this year was key because the Africa Union Commission (AUC) had presented a bold Higher Education plan that would push universities in Africa to produce 100,000 PhD graduates in the next 10 years, of which 20 per cent would be in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), to boost the continent’s development agenda.
The VC explained that as it had been reported by the University World News, Issue Number 773, higher education had been confirmed as a pillar in Africa Union’s 2024 to 2033 development plan, which meant that students had the responsibility to contribute to placing Africa on the new world’s map.
“Dress well, for you are addressed the way you dress. Even though universities do not prescribe dress codes for students, it is not out of place to advise on the appropriateness of dressing for lectures or in general.
“There are outfits for various occasions, so ensure that you dress as a university student, a future middle-level executive. “When you begin now, you will get used to it,” he advised them.
The Chairman of the University Council, Prof. Jonathan Narh Ayertey, said there had never been a more critical time to address climate change and achieve net zero emissions. He said as ocean levels rose and extreme weather events became intolerable, “we would be the ones who would suffer the consequences. Therefore, the choices we make today will have an impact on generations yet unborn”.
The High Court Judge of Somanya, Justice Frederick A.W.K. Nawurah, in a statement said, the friends the students made would determine what they would be in future.
