By Chernor M. Jalloh & Sheku Putka Kamara
The University of Sierra Leone has recently faced some criticism in so far as graduation ceremonies are concerned. The problems have been visible, but maybe some of the solutions are also not shrouded in secrecy. As USL Lecturers ourselves, here is what we think!
Graduation ceremonies are universally regarded as solemn academic rites—moments of closure, affirmation, and collective pride. They symbolize not only the intellectual achievements of students, but also the sacrifices of parents, guardians, lecturers, and the wider society that invests in higher education. In well-governed university systems, commencement ceremonies are carefully planned civic events that reinforce institutional credibility and public trust.
At the University of Sierra Leone (USL), however, graduation has increasingly drifted away from this ideal. Over the past decade, what should be a dignified academic milestone has become, for many stakeholders, an annual experience of stress, congestion, exclusion, and institutional disarray. The cumulative effect is not merely inconvenience, but a gradual erosion of confidence in the University’s administrative capacity.
The 2025 graduation ceremonies, held from December 3rd to 4th, sadly reaffirmed this troubling pattern. Rather than representing a corrective turn, they reinforced systemic weaknesses that university leadership can no longer afford to normalize or rationalize.
On December 3rd, graduates from the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) were combined into a single ceremony at Mount Aureol. Predictably—and avoidably—this decision resulted in severe traffic congestion, logistical paralysis, and physical exhaustion for attendees. Parents and relatives reportedly left their homes as early as 4:00 a.m. in an attempt to arrive on time for a ceremony scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Yet many still failed to gain timely access.
The situation underscored a fundamental planning deficit: when attendance logistics require near-dawn departures for a mid-morning event, the problem lies not with the public but with institutional design.
Faculty members were equally affected. One lecturer who departed home at 5:30 a.m. arrived at 10:15 a.m.—just in time to join the mandatory academic procession. Had the procession commenced as scheduled, he would have been excluded from an official university obligation. If academic staff struggle to access their own institution’s graduation, the implications for elderly parents, expectant mothers, persons with disabilities, and families traveling from distant districts are self-evident.
Indeed, many parents journeyed from provincial towns and the outskirts of Freetown with a singular expectation: to witness the academic culmination of their children’s years of effort. Instead, several were denied entry at the gates due to “space limitations,” after enduring hours of gridlock under intense heat. Excluding parents from graduation ceremonies—not due to security risks, but due to poor capacity planning—raises serious ethical and governance concerns. Graduation is not a privilege for the few; it is a shared social achievement.
Beyond congestion and access, the ceremonies exposed deeper administrative failures. Hundreds of students reportedly did not find their names on graduation lists due to missing grades, unresolved payment records, or bureaucratic lapses within academic and financial units. These are not marginal clerical errors. In higher-education governance, failure to reconcile student records before graduation constitutes institutional negligence, with profound emotional and psychological consequences for affected students and families.
Globally, best practices dictate that graduation lists be provisionally published weeks—or months—in advance, with transparent mechanisms for resolving anomalies. That students in 2025 were discovering exclusion on graduation day itself points to systemic weaknesses in record-keeping, coordination, and accountability.
The physical conditions further compounded the ordeal. Prolonged speeches, inadequate seating, weak crowd control, exposure to heat, and unclear protocols transformed what should have been a moment of celebration into one of discomfort and frustration. In contrast, universities across Africa and beyond have increasingly adopted time-bound programs, digital access passes, and decentralized ceremonies precisely to avoid such outcomes.
This problem is no longer episodic; it is endemic. When institutional failures recur annually, responsibility shifts from circumstance to leadership. USL must therefore confront an uncomfortable but necessary truth: the current centralized graduation model is operationally unsustainable, socially exclusionary, and misaligned with basic standards of modern event and university management.
What Must Change
First, each constituent institution of USL should conduct its graduation ceremony independently, within its own premises or context-appropriate venues. IPAM, COMAHS, Fourah Bay College, and other colleges operate distinct academic calendars, cohort sizes, and infrastructural realities. Decentralized ceremonies would significantly reduce congestion, enhance crowd management, and restore a sense of intimacy and dignity to the occasion.
Second, where institutional premises are insufficient, USL should utilize professionally managed venues such as the Bintumani Conference Centre or Radisson Blu Hotel. These venues are purpose-built for large events, offering structured seating, parking, ventilation, accessibility, and professional logistical support. While cost considerations are often raised, the reputational and human costs of repeated failure are far higher—and ultimately more damaging.
Third, graduation planning must begin months, not weeks, in advance, under a standing inter-departmental committee with clear authority and accountability. Effective planning requires coordination with traffic police, city authorities, security services, and emergency responders, alongside structured entry systems, digital ticketing, and contingency arrangements.
Fourth, academic and financial clearance systems must be fully digitized, integrated, and audited well ahead of graduation. No student who has fulfilled academic requirements should discover exclusion on the day of ceremony. That outcome reflects institutional failure, not student deficiency.
Finally, USL leadership must actively listen—to students, staff, parents, and the broader public. Graduation ceremonies are not routine administrative events; they are powerful public symbols of institutional competence, empathy, and respect for citizens’ investment in education.
A Call to Action
Universities do more than confer degrees; they model governance norms and civic values. When a university mishandles its most symbolic event, it communicates troubling signals about efficiency, accountability, and care for the public it serves. USL possesses the intellectual capital, historical legacy, and national mandate to do better—but only if it acknowledges systemic weaknesses and commits to reform.
Graduation should be remembered for applause, pride, and hope—not for traffic jams, exclusion, and exhaustion. The Class of 2025 deserved better. The Class of 2026 must not inherit the same institutional blunder. Reform is no longer optional. It is long overdue.
It is important to address these matters because we cannot and we should not continue to operate in such a manner and yes, we should fix these problems even before the graduation days. Let us start with the timely publication of results. Let us start with not bending principles at the middle of the game. Hopefully, we should be fine by then.
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Wednesday, 17th December 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
