UPSA holds first session of 18th Congregation.

The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has held the first session of its 18th Congregation at the University’s auditorium in Accra.

A total of 1,275 graduates from the School of Graduate Studies and the UPSA Law School were conferred with degrees.

Special awards were presented to graduates who excelled in their respective programmes.

Delivering his report, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor, announced that the cohort comprised 1,086 postgraduate graduates and 189 Bachelor of Laws (LLB) graduates.

The postgraduate cohort included 554 Master of Business Administration (MBA), 222 Master of Science (MSc), 196 Master of Arts (MA), 73 Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and 41 Master of Laws (LLM) graduates.

Their programmes spanned business, finance, accounting, management, communication, information systems, leadership, procurement, insurance, marketing and law. Professor Mawutor also announced that four master’s graduates had achieved a perfect final Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.0 out of 4.0, describing the feat as a first in the University’s history. The ceremony marked the graduation of the inaugural cohorts of five postgraduate programmes: MPhil in Information Systems, MPhil in Management, and the LLM programmes in Competition and Consumer Protection Law, International Business and Commercial Law, and Natural Resources and Climate Change Law.

Addressing the graduating class, Professor Mawutor urged them to use their education to solve problems, strengthen institutions and serve their communities. He acknowledged the discipline and determination of those who combined postgraduate studies with careers and family responsibilities. “What difference can I make because of what I have learnt?” he challenged them to ask.

He encouraged graduates to continue learning and adapting as technology and Artificial Intelligence reshape professional practice.

For law graduates, he stressed that professional competence must be accompanied by empathy and integrity. “Know the law, but understand the people it affects. Pursue excellence, but never at the expense of integrity. Let your ambition be guided by principle,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor also highlighted the University’s efforts to connect research and teaching with industry and societal needs, including its maiden Innovation Week, which brought together student innovators to develop responses to practical challenges, and the establishment of the J.K. Horgle Transport and Logistics Centre of Excellence.

The Congregation Speaker, Dr Philip Oti-Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), encouraged graduates to approach their professional lives with a commitment to value creation, problem-solving and responsible leadership. “The world outside will not ask you what you studied. It will ask: What can you do? What problem can you solve? What value can you bring? And what kind of leader will you become?” he said. Dr Oti-Mensah urged graduates to distinguish themselves through preparation, discipline, reliability and consistency, emphasizing the importance of sustaining high standards in employment, business and public service.

Delivering her valedictory address, Ms Klenam Aku Tsikata urged her fellow graduates to dream bigger than their circumstances and hold on to faith.

Anchoring her speech on Isaiah 40:31 – “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.” – She said: “Today, that verse is not just scripture to me. It is my story, and I believe it is our story.

There were seasons when we were running.

There were seasons when we could barely walk. But we are here, and we did not get here alone.” She commended Prof. Mawutor for his leadership, particularly the Young Faculty Scholarship Programme through which over 30 young scholars, including herself, are pursuing higher education. “A university is measured not only by the buildings it raises, but by the people it raises,” she noted.

Miss Tsikata celebrated UPSA’s open lecturer-student relationship and saluted working students who juggled jobs and lectures. “Many of us did not have the luxury of being only students. We went from work to class, from long meetings to longer lectures.

We gave up our weekends,” she said. In a powerful charge to female graduates, she said women have defied societal scripts that confined them to the kitchen. “Today, we close that book.

A woman’s place can be in the kitchen, in the boardroom, in high-profile meetings, at the head of the table, and on this stage,” she declared to applause.