About 3,500 freshmen and women admitted into the four faculties of the Institute of Public Administration and Management, University of SierraLeone (IPAM, USL) to pursue degrees in various disciplines have completed a two-day Orientation exercise on Saturday, 6th January 2024 organised by the IPAM administration at its Tower Hill Campus in Freetown.

In her keynote note address, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of IPAM, Assoc. Prof. Miriam Conteh-Morgan reminded the new students that they are now in the tertiary level of education for which much is now expected of them. She pointed out that they are privileged to form the “Class of 2027” – a year in which they are expected to graduate – out of the more than twelve thousand applicants, and admonished them to work harder to achieve that goal.

Assoc. Prof. Conteh-Morgan told the Class of 2027 at the orientation ceremony that they were lucky in many respects – the first to sing the new IPAM song during orientation and the first to use the new IPAM logo on their orientation T-shirts and caps. She, however, reminded them that they would be the first class of students to experience the implementation of the new policy on writing reference exams, which requires that students be given only one chance to retake their reference examination.

Speaking on behalf of the Registrar of the University of Serra Leone, the Deputy Registrar of IPAM, Mr. Munda J.S. Lebbie admonished the students to focus on their primary objective at IPAM so that they would not take more than four academic years to complete their various degrees.

Mr. Lebbie also took time to explain to the new students the governance structure of the University of Sierra Leone as well as that of IPAM.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the chairman of the Orientation Ceremony, Dr. Ezekiel Duramani Lakkoh who is also Dean of the Faculty of Accountancy and Finance at IPAM introduced both the academic and administrative staff members of IPAM that were present at the orientation ceremony.

Statements by several speakers on issues bothering on health and related matters; internship and placements; students and academic affairs; academic career advisory and counselling services; the use of the library; the IPAM writing centre, and ethics and responsibility formed the climax of the two-day orientation ceremony.

@ USL PR Directorate

Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Saturday, January 6th, 2023 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)