A total of 694 students, last November 12th, were conferred attestations of graduation from various specialties of the prestigious Biaka University Institute of Buea (BUIB), in a ceremony that was presided over by the Vice-chancellor of University of Buea(UB), Prof, Ngomo Horace Manga, sitting in for the Minister of Higher Education Prof. Jaques Fame Ndongo.
The 694 graduated with either HND, or BSc degrees, or MSc degrees or MBA from fields like Nursing, Public Health & Administration, Midwifery, Pharmaceutical Studies, Accounting & Finance, Financial Management, Human Resource Management.
It was the 21st Convocation of BUIB and the representative of the Minister of Higher Education commended BUIB for effectively abiding by legal provisions of Higher Education to operate its programmes. He acknowledged the expansion of the infrastructure of the institute to meet with the increasing demand of applicants to study BUIB, noted for its more than 20 years of excellence.
Prof. Manga noted that BUIB is a significant contributor to nation-building while hailing its management. He urged the graduates of the different fields of study to be good ambassadors of BUIB and to “serve the community, humanity; to serve with wisdom and abnegation”
Earlier in her welcome speech, the Vice-Chancellor of BUIB, Dr. Francisca Hongla Biaka, disclosed that the 694 graduates are well-equipped and globally competitive.
She said despite the COVID-19 crisis, BUIB introduced technology to encourage e-learning. Addressing the graduates, Guest Speaker Dr. Emmanuel Tita Sama (an ICT specialist) who presented a discourse on professionalization, hailed the students for fighting known and unknown battles to qualify for graduation. But Dr. Sama reminded them that they were only graduates and not yet professionals, unless they applied what they learned in the field, strictly observing the principles of accountability and adaptability as well as professional ethics.
The Guest Speaker also shared job-seeking tips with the graduates, so they could easily secure or create jobs. On her part, Dr. Che Mary Lum epse Feh, registrar of BUIB happily announced to the audience that students of the Institute took the first positions in seven different disciplines at the Higher National Diploma (HND) certification exams in 2021.
Also present at the graduation were Nigerian officials such as the Nigerian Consul-General in Buea, HE Lawal Bappah; Mrs. Margaret Eze,Director of Nursing & Head of Education Department at the Nursing & Midwifery Council of Nigeria, who was visiting Cameroon for the first time and Mrs. Godswill Stella Ijeoma, Assistant Director of Nursing & Special Assistant to the Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council ,Nigeria.
These Nigerian health officials were elated to witness several Nigerians in Cameron graduate as nurses from BUIB. It is worthy of note that foreign students from countries such as Britain, America, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria have been studying at BUIB. BUIB, whose mantra is “The Audacity To Be Different”, so far runs three schools: School of Management Sciences(SMS), School of Health Sciences(SHS) and School of Education(SE).
