Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
UG’s 10th Vice Chancellor to be officially installed next month
An investiture ceremony for the 10th Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana [UG] is slated for July 28, 2017. This disclosure was yesterday made by UG Registrar, Dr. Nigel Gravesande, at a press conference held at the
Professor Ivelaw Griffith
Mexico Embassy in Brickdam, Georgetown.
Aside from launching an inaugural Diaspora Engagement Conference [DEC] slated for July 23 – 28, 2017 at the Ramada Princess Hotel, which is expected to bring financial and other opportunities for UG and by extension Guyana, the press conference was intended to highlight plans for the investiture of the VC.
According to Dr. Gravesande, the investiture will essentially bring down the curtains on the DEC and officially solidify Professor Ivelaw Griffith as the 10th Vice Chancellor of UG.
To ensure that the symbolic ceremony is both memorable and auspicious, the Registrar disclosed that a planning committee has been put in place to execute its various aspects. The broad-based planning committee will include both UG officials, headed by Dr. Gravesande, and private sector officials from three companies. According to Dr. Gravesande, all of the private sector representatives on the planning committee are themselves alumni.
The investiture ceremony is generally done across the spectrum of the community of universities globally, after a Vice Chancellor or a President of a University would have been in office for about a year or so.
The month of May marked one year since Professor Griffith was appointed to the position of Vice Chancellor. Dr. Gravesande at yesterday’s forum said that “as part of this historic and symbolic exercise, [Professor Griffith] would be formally installed into the position of Vice Chancellor by [UG] Chancellor Professor E. Nigel Harris, who will administer the oath of office for the Vice Chancellor.”
The ceremony will be graced by a significant presence of regional and international institutions. Some of them, according to Dr. Gravesande, are going to be required to bring greetings on behalf of their respective universities, while others will have their messages included in the official programme.
“We also would be embracing the diplomatic communities who will all be invited to this historic event, civil society and Members of Parliament as well as private sector and religious organisations are part of this activity,” said Dr. Gravesande.
The ceremony, the Registrar said, will be a solemn programme spanning about one hour and 15 minutes with presentations for and on behalf of the Government of Guyana, the Academic Community and the Student Body.
Vice Chancellor Griffith is expected to deliver the keynote acceptance address at the forum and according to Dr. Gravesande, “we are expecting to have about 500 national, regional and international representatives attending this very historic investiture ceremony of the University of Guyana’s 10th Vice Chancellor.”
The ceremony, according to Dr. Gravesande, will largely be funded through efforts of “our engagement with corporate Guyana as well as other benefactors who want to be a part of a process of having an historic event in the annals of our history”.
But according to Dr. Gravesande, the ceremony will gain significant technical and other support from UG. He made it clear too that the delegates who are coming from abroad – regional and international institutions – are all paying their own way to get to Guyana.
“They are going to be responsible for their own accommodation, meals, but the university would be creating and facilitating this by having an enabling environment to facilitate their ground transportation,” Dr. Gravesande asserted.
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