The Executive Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies, Daniel McKorley, has called on university graduates to be innovative and self-reliant to survive in the world outside school.
He said the education they have acquired was to prepare them to make life on their own and not necessarily just to be employed.
He therefore called on graduates to look for problems to solve rather than looking for employment.
Mr McKorley made the call at the 17th congregation of the Garden City University where he was the guest speaker.
Silver jubilee
GCU is one of the leading private universities in the Ashanti region with a niche in the training camp of health professionals.
The 17th congregation coincided with the silver celebration of university since its inception.
In all, 2,494 students graduated with various degrees.
Of the number, 2361 of them were from the School of Allied Sciences, while 133 were from the School of Business and Applied Sciences.
Theme
Speaking on the theme of the congregation: “25 years of Impact and Beyond: Sustaining Excellence and Innovation for National Transformation”, Mr McKorley encouraged the graduands not to settle for less and to strive for excellence in their fields of endeavours.
He commended GCU for its consistency over the last quarter of century in producing skilled professionals for particularly the health sector of the country.
Skilled professionals
Addressing the congregation, the Acting President of the GCU, Nana Kwaku Owusu-Kwarteng(PhD), said in the past 10 years, the university has contributed a total of 11, 656 skilled professionals who are contributing to the development of the country.
Most of the products from the GCU are working in the health sector as it has carved a niche for training health personnel.
Nana Owusu-Kwarteng therefore called for a partnership between the government and the private universities to nurture and mentor these universities for their mutual benefits.
The Acting president announced that the University was finalising its proposal for accreditation to start PhD programmes in Midwifery and Nursing.
“These will posion GCU to enhance the quality of lecturers with terminal degrees, and addionally train midwifery and nursing educators for other schools in Ghana and beyond”, he said.
Nana Owusu-Kwarteng advised the graduands to serve as good ambassadors of the University by excelling in their fields of endeavours.
Commendation
The Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Prof Christian Agyare, on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, commended GCU for its dedication and commitment to quality education and investing in infrastructure over the years.
“We commend management for its dedication to delivering quality teaching. Your state of art of facilities including advanced laboratories, simulation rooms and digital learning systems continue to enrich academic experience,” he said.
He said the University has over the past 25 years, built a distinguished reputation as a forward-looking institution driven by innovation, technology, and community focused scholarship.
“You have demonstrated resilience, purpose and unwavering pursuit of excellence,” he said.
