The Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG) has held a matriculation service for 742 new students admitted to pursue various undergraduate programme for the 2020/2021 academic year.

This year’s matriculation was organized on three separate days due to the COVID-19 pandemic to create sufficient room for proper observation of health protocols like social distancing.

Addressing the freshers at separate functions, Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, President of PUCG, said the society still plagued with the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore, students and staff should not let their guards down.

He also said the recent incidence of ritual killings, murders, road carnage, craze for quick wealth, and corruption, calls for a return to "our values of integrity, honesty, hard work, self-discipline, love of neighbour and community as a country."

He said the institution has structured various activities to inculcate the values of integrity, hard work, selflessness, love of humanity and self-discipline into students to shape them into productive labour force.

Rev. Prof. Obeng said, the current generation, where knowledge is the primary currency for economic development, the institution believed knowledge without values cannot complement sustainable development.

He said inculcation of these values into citizens was important to push Ghana forward because it would save the country from greed, tribalism, nepotism, ethnocracy and in the long run reduce poverty.

He said the PUCG's Chaplaincy centre was spearheading the campaign, adding that, through these values, one could become a disciplined leader and agent of change in their chosen fields.

Rev. Prof Obeng noted that all efforts would be made to inculcate the institution's values in the students through spiritual exercises that the Chaplaincy centre had rolled out.

This year the instruction reviewed an existing practice of giving Bibles to all fresh students, and he said, " the Bible is the main source that teaches those values."

He said the Chaplaincy centre would ensure that students were schooled properly on the study of the Bible by reading, understanding and applying its content to practical life.

He said understanding the Bible would enlighten people so that they would not fall prey to charlatans parading themselves as men and women of God, Mallams and money doublers.

‘‘You have just sung the University anthem, possibly without carefully thinking about the anthem. It teaches Faith in God, humility, commitment, discipline and integrity, obedience, and a reward at the end of perfect work done,’’ he stressed.

In his view, values and professionalism result in development, adding that, "this is what citizens must pursue to safeguard the country."

He said the institution desires that its students would emerge with the type of education, knowledge and skills that would enable them to compete and succeed in the global economy.

He encouraged the fresh students to build on high standards of performance both in internal and external examinations, public competitions and quizzes set by their predecessors.