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Herald Reporter
Arrupe Jesuit University (AJU) last Friday became the first university in the country to hold a virtual graduation ceremony, as large gatherings remain suspended under Covid-19 regulations.
The graduation ceremony, which was streamed live on Facebook, saw 34 students, 33 males and one female being capped remotely.
The 34 were a mix of local and foreign students.
The graduating students’ faces were being beamed on the screen as their names were called out, as opposed to the conventional graduation ceremony where they would have walked to the podium to be capped.
Only the university’s top brass, including the vice chancellor, were at the university’s campus and they delivered speeches online. The virtual event was the private institution’s second graduation ceremony since it received a provisional accreditation from Government in 2017.
AJU’s 2019/2020 graduation came at a time when other universities across the country are finalising their reopening strategies for the second semester.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, AJU Vice Chancellor Dr Kizito Kiyimba said in the wake of Covid-19, the new normal was no longer a mere cliché.
“As AJU, the lockdown situation found us sophisticated enough to face it,” he said.
“We were at the very end of our semester with three weeks to go.”
The university’s approach was already inclined towards digital, so they made slight adjustments and continued with their semester.
“We had already engaged in Google classrooms with various stages of advancement,” said Dr Kiyimba.
“We have always submitted our essays and ongoing evaluations online. Students have for long, given presentations by Power Point and our library sources are online.”
Dr Kiyimba said Covid-19 had forced academia to seriously employ remote learning methods they always saw as impossible.
With an enrolment 98 students, the university had a comparative advantage in holding its examinations compared to others. It provided transport for students to and from examination venues.
AJU’s handling of its last weeks of the semester and graduation resonates with the new approach being pursued by Government.
Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira has encouraged institutions under his purview to consider blended learning.
“Blended learning is a learning system which combines virtual lectures and physical lectures,” he said.
“It is a departure from the old approach where people would need to be in class all the time.”
Online Reporter