Joyce Hilda Efia Aboagye overall best student.
Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) has secured an amount of GH¢ 4.9 million from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to kick-start the continuation of its new campus facility, Rector, David Newton has announced.
He said the fund would enable the completion of the development of the new site into a modern university campus.
Mr. Newton further observed that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning are also in the process of securing external funding for the development of the site.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning are making frantic efforts to secure external funding for the development of our site into a modern university campus equipped with state of the art facilities,” he said.
The rector of GIJ made this announcement when he addressed the institute’s 5th congregation themed, ‘Developing Human Capital for Information Management in Ghana; A Challenge to Communication Institutes’.
He said as part of the responsibility placed on the institute due to its elevation to a university status, it has established a communication and social sciences faculty in addition to the already existing Journalism and Public Relation/Advertising faculties.
He further noted that GIJ would for the first time award its own degree certificates with effect from 2013 as a result of the presidential charter conferred on the institute in 2009.
“Our affiliation with the University of Ghana will officially end in 2012 therefore, in 2013, the institute for the first time will award its own degree certificates,” Newton said.
He later urged the graduates to justify the sacrifice made by their parents and society by persevering till they achieve their highest goal in life.
Speaking on the theme as the guest of honour, Chairman of the Ghana Media Commission, Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, said communications schools established to train media practitioners must begin to re-examine their curricula and the impact of their products on society.
He said these institutions must most importantly review their programmes against the needs of the society to be relevant.
“For the successful and boundless flow of information, there is the need for all those who will find themselves working in this sector as the purveyors of information to be well trained both intellectually and vocationally,” Mr. Blay-Amihere noted.
He therefore urged the institute to introduce programmes that would produce workers in the information vineyard who understand the challenges of today’s Ghana.
The Media Commission Chairman also advised the graduates to move into the working world with the determination to make a big difference between professionalism and unprofessionalism.
The Minister of Education, Betty Mould Iddrisu, in a speech read on her behalf also indicated that her ministry has prioritized three thematic areas to quicken the pace of the institute’s development.
“The ministry is focused on human resource development, provision of facilities and requisite logistics support and upgrading of physical infrastructure in the mist of competing interest,” she said.
She also tasked the graduates not to lose sight of the importance of ethical standard and their responsibility to society.
The sector minister later called on the stakeholders, especially the alumni to take more active interest in the future development of the institute.
“Your collective effort will be key in maintaining your newly acquired status as a specialized university for communication and journalism,” she noted.
A total of 135 students, consisting 98 women and 37 men graduated with Diploma in Communication studies.
Joyce Hilda Efia Aboagye was adjudged the overall best student while Jessica Acheampong was adjudged the best student in Journalism, Public Relation / Advertising.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri