The 51st congregation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) opened in Kumasi on Tuesday, with a call to social scientists to use their acquired knowledge and skills to address socio-economic challenges facing the society.
Professor Imoro Braimah, Provost of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, reminded them that they had been trained to be innovative and help in problem-solving.
They could therefore not disappoint the nation since the cardinal objective of any university education was to bring about a transformational change to improve the living conditions of the people.
In all, 2, 200 students from the College, 48 per cent of them females, graduated and were awarded first degree certificates.
In excess of 200 of them passed out with first class.
Prof Braimah appealed to the government to take steps to ensure the recruitment of new faculty members to enhance academic work.
The directive to public universities not to recruit new lecturers should be reviewed to allow for replacement of the ageing staff.
He touched on infrastructure development and said many faculties of the College were being encouraged to find innovative means to generate funds to improve their lecture theatres and laboratories.
He announced that the Department of Geography and Rural Development, KNUST, had signed an agreement with some United States (US)-based universities to share experiences and Prof. Braimah advised the graduating students to go into the job market to make a difference - bring efficiency and increased productivity.
GNA