UCC Awards Degrees for 2020/2021 – President Dennis Gayle salutes graduates

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) has awarded 973 students who have earned degrees in various disciplines at a 2020/2021 virtual commencement ceremony on Sunday, July 18, 2021.

Four hundred students from 2020 and 573 from 2021 have successfully completed their programme of studies at the College of Graduate Studies & Research, the School of Business Management, the School of Technology & Mathematics or the School of Humanities & Law.  They received Bachelors or Masters degrees from the UCC.

Professor Dennis Gayle, University President and Chairman, UCC Foundation Board said that this combined 2020 and 2021 virtual commencement ceremony reflects both the challenges that have occurred as a result of the continuing coronavirus pandemic and your achievements since the 2019 commencement ceremony.”

He told the students and guests at the ceremony that among the most important institutional developments for the university “include the award of Institutional Accreditation by the University Council of Jamaica positioning the UCC as one of four Jamaican universities that have earned this accolade, out of some 80 registered tertiary institutions nationwide.”

The UCC was able to smoothly convert our traditional classroom teaching and learning to fully online experiences, while strengthening the internal quality assurance, quality enhancement and institutional effectiveness framework.

Addressing the students directly, President Gayle noted, “During your engagement with the rich teaching and learning environment provided by the UCC, you have expanded your general education, allowing you to better understand the world in which you live, the Caribbean region and your country, as well as your knowledge and skills within selected disciplines, including engagement with abstract concepts and theories.  You have learnt to think critically, seek required information and to express your thoughts and feelings more clearly in speech and writing.”

President Gayle said that there is abundant evidence that higher education improves an individual’s quality of life and that compared to high school graduates, university and college graduates tend to experience longer life spans, better access to healthcare, greater job satisfaction, expended life earnings, economic security and improved career prospects.

“In a cumulative sense, higher education constitutes the intellectual motor that drives national, regional and international economic growth and development as well as the fourth industrial revolution”, he declared.

Quoting Aristotle, “the educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead”, President Gayle saluted the graduates of the UCC and wished them success in their professional lives, “whether characterized by successful employment, entrepreneurship or further education.”