The Chairman and members of the University council, the Vice Rector, the Registrar, the Special Guest of Honour: the Dean of Faculty of Accounting and Finance-UPSA: Professor Raymond K. Dziwornu, the Regional Minister: Honourable Dr. Archibald Y. Letsa, the Ho Municipal Chief Executive Officer: Honourable Divine Bosson, Togbe Kasa II: Dufia of Ho Ahoe, the Deans, the University Librarian, Heads of Departments, Members of Convocation, Distinguished Guests, Senior and Junior Staff, Parents and Guardians, Matriculants, the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure and deep sense of nostalgia to warmly welcome everyone to this MAIDEN Matriculation ceremony of the ADONAI University COLLEGE. This Maiden Matriculation ceremony of the University, IS A DREAM COME TRUE. We are matriculating!!!
The Ho Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Honourable Divine Bosson, re-echoed the need for vigorous research and hands-on education to meet the aspirations of the contemporary job market on 6th December, 2022 during the first orientation of Adonai University College of Research and Entrepreneurship. “Ghana’s technological advancement and competitiveness lies in research and people imbued with the appropriate entrepreneurial acumen, vocational and technical education,” he stated. Honourable Bosson was speaking at the maiden orientation for fresh students of the newly established Adonai University College of Research and Entrepreneurship in Ho. He appropriately observed that what was missing in post-secondary-tertiary education in Ghana was the needed training that prepared the individual for the job market. The MCE said the current global crisis had impacted all facets of life, with household incomes losing their value and businesses struggling to be on their feet.
Hope
He said the Adonai University College of Research and Entrepreneurship was established in the wake of the adversities, it was, therefore, expected to restore hope and give the true definition of research and entrepreneurship to build the future.
He affirmed the Municipal Assembly’s firm stance and preparedness to support the university college to train young people to transform the fortunes of the Volta Region and the country.
The Rector of the institution Rev Dr Bright Adonai, said out of the working population of 13 million people in the country, about 1.8 million of them were unemployed.
He said the likelihood of the figure rising was high and the chances of existing businesses recruiting new hands were slim.
Career guidance
“It is, therefore, incumbent on our educational system (especially the tertiary educational system) to tilt towards entrepreneurship and career guidance so that the working population can easily become self-employed and create more employment avenues,” he added.
Rev. Dr Adonai said the Adonai University College of Research and Entrepreneurship had looked beyond the unemployment problem in Ghana to identify an opportunity to groom more entrepreneurs. “We intend to achieve this vision by providing relevant business, technical and professional education to students to equip them with skills for empowerment, economic transformation and growth,” the Rector said.
In fulfillment of the above,
I warmly welcome you all, especially the students, parents, and guardians, to today’s Maiden Matriculation Ceremony for fresh Students of our great and visionary University. Your decision as Students to study at Adonai University College is a clear indication that you believe in the quality of teaching and learning being offered here, and are poised for rigorously exciting academic experience. Thank you for your confidence in our dreams and vision. Matriculation is a time-honoured tradition and an annual ceremony of initiation, where Universities formally admit “fresh” men and women as bonafide and certified members into the University community. Matriculation confers on “fresh” students’ full and complete membership of the University upon the fulfillment or completion of all the necessary admission requirements.
The idea is usually to generate school spirit and loyalty so that students are enthusiastic about the institutions they attend.
Matriculation involves the formal process of entering or being admitted into a University as a candidate for a degree, certificate, or diploma or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements. This occasion is often marked by a solemn formal ceremony. It requires the entering students to take an oath by which they pledge to be exemplary learners who place the highest value on their intellectual, personal, and professional growth and development; and who respect learning, development and knowledge by striving for the higher of standards both in and out of the classroom.
Every student who enrolls for the first time in a University must of necessity, law, and tradition go through the rites of Matriculation and take the relevant Matriculation Oath, signifying formal and official admission into the University, community, and its public. Among other things, the Matriculation Oath requires you to be diligent and fervent in the pursuit of your studies, to seek knowledge and truth, and to promote the general good of the University. It also binds the University and its Management to seek the welfare of you the students in whatever the University does. As fresh students, in your pledge to put up good behavior, you are committing yourselves to be disciplined and good ambassadors of the University.
Today’s matriculation is historical. It is very important and ordained by God. It marks the official and legal enrollment and registration of you the matriculating students to Adonai University College of Research and Entrepreneurship and its innovative departments and academic programs. It is in line with the approval of GTEC. In this regard, it is, with great sense of joy, pride, extreme exhilaration and acknowledgement of the grace of God Almighty that I welcome all the students to the ADONAI University College of Research and Entrepreneurship. I trust that God Almighty will use Adonai University College to nurture and develop your growth and total or complete development in all facets of life. I sincerely appreciate and applaud your parents and guardians for the pivotal roles that they have played in your academic lives to date. It is my sincere prayer that their labour and toils will not be in vain.
It is appropriate for me to reveal that Adonai University College becomes a truly student-centered and quality educational institution of global choice. It shall be a model University for transforming and nurturing true leaders. The University is the place of academic transformation. At Adonai University College, your freedom will come with consummate responsibilities and well-guarded limits.
We at Adonai University College take fervent pride in training our students in responsible and socio-economic academic work. We are focused on the total education and development of our esteemed students. Our education shall be at the direction and guidance of God with the clear understanding that by His grace, our students will assuredly contribute meaningfully to the total development and transformation of Ghana and the world when they graduate from here. Our vision, driving force and core values at Adonai University College encompass developing God-fearing young men and women who shall excel in their various fields of study, calling, academic, social, and professional endeavour. I pray that you, the students, especially, shall willingly, enthusiastically, and gladly embrace self-discipline, complete, and strict self-imposed guiding principles and fervent devotion to your studies and general comportment within and outside the campus walls. As students of Adonai University College, you are now very worthy ambassadors of the University and must demonstrate that ambassadorial disposition in all your interactions on and off campus. You are, what our first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah called “Ambassador, Extra-ordinary and Plenipotentiary”.
Our distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Adonai University College has a compelling and focused strategic vision to offer the best in cutting edge research and entrepreneurship in responsible exemplary leadership, and management with integrity. The University will partner with other world-class Universities across the world to enable her deliver on the divine God-imposed mandate to Ghana and the world.
The Adonai University College is committed to sound and mutually beneficial international academic collaborations with other similarly-intentioned Universities. The collaboration programs will take some of our students, and actively engage them and the academic and non-academic staff of the University, to other world-class Universities in the world. The University shall champion innovation on several fronts. We offer, and shall continue to offer courses that are of commercial value. Our approach to Teaching and Learning is market-oriented, market driven, and entrepreneurially based and grounded. We shall judiciously combine theory and practice in our teaching and learning endeavor. Our Graduates will be sound, critical, creative, and innovative thinkers (good thinkers). In addition, Adonai University College shall be proponents, apostles, and practitioners of emotional intelligence and facts-based thinking. Graduates of this University will not join the large army of unemployed and unemployable graduate job seekers in the nation at Elwalk stadium where thousands of students chase only hundreds of job openings. Our products will rather be proud owners and pioneers of businesses in a few years’ time, even during their school days.
The compelling vision of Adonai University College is empowering its products. I humbly call on everyone present to join the Rector and his team, made up of sound academics, intellectuals, and practitioners to ensure and guarantee the fulfillment and further growth and development of the University. We shall deliver on the provisions and requirements of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4) which requires and mandate expanded higher education scholarships.
ADVICE AND CONCLUSION
My dear matriculants, I congratulate you all once again on your successful admission and enrollment into this great University. It is our job and responsibility or duty, as a Tertiary institution of higher learning, alongside other academic and administrative staff, to make your experience here as challenging, rigorous, and exciting as we can. First of all, I urge you to honor the tenets of the Matriculation Oath you take and be guided by the rules and regulations contained in your Students’ Handbook will be provided to you and is will be available in the Library and on the school’s website. Matriculation is the beginning of a very bright and promising academic and professional future that awaits you at graduation. Every necessary resource to deliver on our commitment is available on this campus. Explore them to the fullest. My heartiest congratulations to you again on your matriculation today. May you have many more years of success and higher achievements in the future. It is great to have you admitted into this great institution of scholarship and professionalism, a privilege that others have longed to get but unfortunately could not. You are blessed to be among the selected few today. Happy matriculation! I look forward to celebrating with you again during your graduation in a year’s time. Let’s work harmoniously together to make this a reality! Thank you, and God bless us all