UCC sandwich, distance graduates record 33% pass
Out of 12,325 students who graduated from the University of Cape Coast sandwich and distance learning mode last Friday, 4,076 had passes.
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The figure represents about 33 per cent of the graduands.
There were 246 first class passes representing less than two per cent of the graduating population with 1,730 obtaining second class upper, 2,972 second class lower division with 3,301 obtaining third class.
Delayed graduation
The graduands completed their studies in 2021 and were expected to have graduated in 2021 but according to the chairman of the university’s governing council, Prof. Obeng Mireku, the congregation delayed due to unrest on the labour front.
The first to fourth sessions for the regular students were held in December 2021.
The congregation is the fifth session of the 54th congregation of the university to graduate students who studied through the sandwich and distance education and completed in 2020/2021 academic year.
Two other sessions were held for the two-day congregation (Friday afternoon and Saturday morning) ceremonies.
Prof. Mireku said universities were central to the development of any prosperous economy, adding that the university was aware of its role and would continue to effectively work play to contribute towards national development.
The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, said the university was putting in place measures to improve teaching and learning.
He said the university was digitalising the teaching modules to make it more accessible to the students.
The VC noted that the university’s delivery of a successful distance education had been characterised by the provision of modules to students.
Challenges
However, he admitted that there had been challenges with the delivery of the modules to the students.
“We admit that there had been challenges in recent times. However, the college had taken the necessary steps to eliminate the impediments by digitalising the modules to enable ease of access by students.”
“This means that students can access the soft copies of their modules. We believe that this will help in maintaining an effective and smooth academic calendar to enable students to go through their programmes and graduate in record time,” he stated.
He explained that the college was in the process of establishing a world class e-learning studio to boost teaching and learning.
UCC ranking
On the university’s ranking, he said the university, according to the Times Higher Education world university ranking placed the university as the first in the country and West Africa and fourth on the African continent and among the top 400 globally.
He said the university as an institution of higher education was committed to equipping its students to efficiently contribute to the country’s development.
Relevant programmes
He said the university’s academic programmes were tailored in response to national human resource needs saying the university was proud of its legacy of integrity, quality and excellence bequeath to its students.
The overall best graduating student, Latif Abdul Ishaq, in his valedictory speech, observed that there were few instances where hard copies of modules were delayed.
“Under such circumstances, we had to resort to PDF. We cannot deny the fact that the periods that modules were delayed were frustrating,” he stated.
Students
Some of the students said they were excited to have successfully graduated, adding that the experience had been satisfying and challenging.
Some of them indicated that many of the students had to combine work, family and school and that could have contributed to the many passes category.
A graduand, Ms Esther Imbeah, who graduated with second class lower division, said some had to travel from far to the study centres, adding that that coupled with challenges with module availability in some instances could have contributed to the many passes.