Leeds Beckett University on Thursday graduated 35 Gambians and Sierra Leone nationals in the health discipline, after successfully completing a post-graduate distance learning programme with the Yorkshire-based University, in UK.
The students, who fulfilled the required three-year part-time distance learning programme, were awarded MSc degrees in Public Health (Health Promotion and Environmental Health) and Public Health Promotion.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Course Leader, Chris Spoor, said the University had been operating in the country since 2007 and has graduated nearly 100 of its students in the different fields of health promotion, a programme open only to Gambians and Sierra Leoneans.
“Amongst those who joined the graduates and continuing students of the course were staff from Leeds, colleagues from the University of The Gambia and representatives from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and other health sectors in The Gambia,” Spoor said.
“Graduating these pools of professionals in Health Promotion in The Gambia and Sierra Leone will help bridge the human resource gaps in the Health Ministries of the two countries.”
Susan Sherwin, Head of School for Health and Community Studies at Leeds Beckett University, said the recent graduates are the third and final cohort of their delivery in The Gambia.
The success of the scholars, she went on, has been supported by the contributions made by their Gambian colleagues and institutions such as the University of The Gambia. She said they had supported the students by acting as dissertation supervisors and reviewing students’ dissertation proposals as ethics committees.
Madam Sherwin further thanked their Gambian colleagues for the support to the students. According to her, the students’ journeys have not always been easy and some students have had to overcome great personal challenges in order to celebrate their successes. She said Leeds Beckett University was founded in 1824 as the Leeds Mechanics Institute, adding that the University has more than 190 years of teaching experience as a teaching institute.
“In 1992, we gained degree awarding powers and became a university, and last year we became Leeds Beckett, named after our Beckett Park Campus in Headingley, which is about three miles out of the City Centre of Leeds where our main campus is located,” she said.
Madam Sue Sherwin further informed the gathering that the University had a number of professors and research areas like dementia, health promotion, prisons, pain, and child protection among others.
The course, she said, would not have been possible without the generous support of the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission who fully paid for 21 students for the first cohort, 15 for the second cohort, and then a further 13 for their third cohort.
The success of this master’s course, she added, is largely due to the students’ commitment to the course and their studies, noting that it is because of them (students), and those who graduated before them that they were able to run this third cohort. “And we must not forget to thank your families and friends who have supported you through your studies, many of whom will be sharing your graduation day with us today,” she concluded.
by Lamin . B .Darboe