African University College seeks Presidential Charter to award its own certificates

The African University College of Communications (AUCC) has begun a process to attain a charter in order to gain independence from its affiliated university.

The school, which is affiliated to the University of Ghana (UG), will then spearhead it's own affairs and award students certification from the AUCC.

The Founder of the School, Mr Kojo Yankah announced this at the 15th graduation ceremony held in Accra.

"The coming years will constitute the third phase of the AUCC. We are building ourselves into a charter so that the University of Ghana can free us from all the disciplinary measures that they put in place for us," he said.

Governing council

Prior to the aforementioned, Mr Yankah said the school had reconstituted a 13-member governing council that would ensure a standardised educational system that would help move the school to its visionalised state.

With their experiences and diverse knowledge in the educational system, Mr Yankah said the council would ensure that all workers at the school were evaluated at the end of every year in order to carry on with those who performed and leave behind those who did not perform.

Advice

For the graduating students, he encouraged them to aim at excellence wherever they found themselves and not be mediocre.

Mr Yankah advised them not to spend time on unproductive endeavours, but rather choose productive things and pursue them.
He also encouraged the graduates to discover what they could do and exhibit their God-given talents in order to create opportunities for themselves and for others as well.

"We are not producing students to join the unemployed graduates. Do not go and rely on anybody for your future. Your future is in your hands. Do not go and complain that there is no job, find work to do," he said.

Graduation

A total of 425 students of which 275 were from the Kojo Yankah School of Communications and 150 from the Sam E. Jonah School of Business, both from the AUCC, graduated at the ceremony.

Ms Jessica Johnson emerged the class of 2018 Winner of the Daily Graphic Award for Best Student in Journalism, while Ms Portia Kumah won the Best Student in strategic communication and the Overall Best student.

Vision

For his part, a Former United Nations Economist, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, challenged the graduates to have a vision where they desired to be and to plan towards getting there.

"You cannot fly blind and hope that any destination will do; you must be purposeful, resourceful and resilient," he told the graduating students.

Way forward

The President of the AUCC, Prof. Margaret Crabbe also stated that despite the achievements chalked over the years, the school was in a process of expanding its scope to offer many Ghanaians and foreigners the opportunity to acquire additional employable skills.

According to her, the launch of the School of Creative Arts in October 2018 had set the pace for other new schools and programmes that would assist the AUCC to attain a charter by 2023.

"At the beginning of the 2018/2019 academic year, our one year intensive Masters of Arts Journalism programme took off and we will be adding many other masters programmes in communications studies, law and business administration," she added.

Prof. Crabbe urged the graduates to take advantage of the new programmes and upgrade themselves in order to reach the highest echelon expected of them.