BU hosts virtual graduation
Cavin Kanoko | Friday July 17, 2020 11:31
A total of 698 graduates received various awards across the five faculties in various programmes offered by the university.
The university’s Vice Chancellor Sheela Raja Ram highlighted the changes the university had to undergo due to the pandemic as a way to adapt and continue with teaching and the learning process.
She said that when the universities shut down and countries went into respective lockdowns, all teaching and learning came to a grinding halt.
In the middle of the semester, the University was amongst the few in Africa that leveraged on the technology investments they had, and their well trained staff and students to make a seamless switch to teach online.
She credited the students’ ability to graduate to the quick action of the university in switching to online teaching to allow the students to complete their coursework for the semester.
She further talked about the university’s motto to have a ‘Yes we can’ attitude, which she said is essential for the graduates as they seek employment. The Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Douglas Letsholathebe, who was delivering the keynote, argued the graduates to reflect on the roles they can play to assist the government and the people of Botswana to recover from the effects of COVID-19 as they enter into the various industries.
He said that despite the various challenges that the pandemic presents for the economy of the country the graduates should focus on utilising the opportunities that it presents and come up with solutions to help alleviate the situation.
“The university’s graduate profile, commonly known as Botho Graduate 3 Profile (BGP), engenders to produce a Botho graduate that has imbibed critical 21st century skills such as being articulate, innovative, entrepreneurial, collaborative, critical thinking, hardworking, ethical, confident, socially responsible and environmentally responsible, in addition to of course their core disciplinary knowledge,” the minister said, paying homage to the values of the university.
He also recognised BU for its contribution to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recipient of the Festus Mogae Award for Academic Excellence, George Green, who just completed his Degree in Network Security and Computer Forensics, gave a valedictorian speech for the class of 2019.
He encouraged his fellow graduates to continue applying themselves even when they start working and to have a persevering attitude towards everything they set out to do in their lives.
The top performing students received the Festus Mogae Award for Academic Excellence, which carried a prize of P5,000 and the Spirit of Botho Award, which carried a prize of P10,000.