A total of 186 students of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) School of Business have received the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence after their exceptional academic performance during the 2019/2020 academic year.

The students who received certificates and books are made up of 61 level 200, 75 level 300, and 50 level 400 students, studying BCom (Accounting), BCom (Finance), BCom(Human Resource Management), BCom (Marketing), BCom (Management) and BCom (Procurement & Supply Chain Management).

The Dean's Award was instituted in the 2008/2009 academic year to recognize and motivate high-performing students with Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.6 and above per academic year.

Prof. John Garchie Gatsi, Dean of the School of Business said the ceremony had become an important event on the calendar of Business schools across the globe.

He indicated that students who obtained first class at each level after an academic year, qualified for the award.

Prof Gatsi said the list of awardees would become a permanent feature of the school’s electronic database to enhance references, follow-up on the progress of the high performing undergraduate students from level 100 to the completion of their programmes of study at the university.

However, he noted that the number of awardees for the year under review compared to the previous year dropped from 308 in 2019 to 186 in 2020, representing a 40 per cent reduction.

Mr. Alhassan Yusif Trawule, Head of Research at the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana who spoke on the topic "Ways to achieve and sustain academic excellence in a pandemic", advised the students to be more studious to achieve more awards.

Aside from achieving and sustaining academic excellence, he noted, students had to set and work towards realistic goals, engage in extra curricula activities, stay motivated and be self-disciplined.

He charged the awardees to take advantage of the Dean's award to learn harder, complete their programmes successfully and take up new challenges.

"Cherish every bit of the award because this was not given to you on a silver platter, you worked for it", he noted and encouraged the students to see the awards ceremony as a motivator, and a process and not the final event itself.

“ Do not be complacent. Get outside of your comfort and strive to achieve more", adding that they should ensure that they would always be counted among the best.

Prof. Francis Eric Amoako Andoh, Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies who chaired the ceremony commended the School of Business for instituting the awards scheme saying, it was a good way of motivating students to learn to achieve academic excellence.

He congratulated all the lectures for working extremely hard in seeing their students excel and urged them to continue to give their utmost best.

"The beauty of our profession is to see our students excel" he added.