Walter Wilson Nana
Buea, Cameroon
The University Institute of the Diocese of Buea, UIDB, is living up to the two components that make up the institution – the academic, which is the teaching arm and the research and business component.
Since the aforementioned components complement each other in the process of providing students with the entrepreneurial skills needed to become professional servant leaders, the students of UIDB, supported by the varsity authorities, set up the maiden edition of a trade fair in their Molyko campus, Buea. The business and academic fair which opened
Mgr Immanuel Bushu officially opened the UIDB Trade Fair
Thursday, April 11, will close shop on Sunday, April 21 2013.
According to Rev.Fr George Jingwa Nkeze, Pro-Chancellor and Interim President of UIDB, the UIDB Trade Fair brings to the fore “how an academic institution like ours, is blending with the entrepreneurial and business world to make our students job creators and not job seekers. If we want to get job creators as it is the wish of all Cameroonians, we must revive our educational system,” he said.
Fr. Nkeze said the UIDB Trade Fair is the moment for our students to put into practice what they have been learning in class.
“The students are running the fair, doing the marketing, they put up the stands and bringing forth their own creations for the academic year. The academic fair opens in the mornings with top academics within the Southwest Region and beyond, invited to give a talk on relevant areas in professional and business education,” he mentioned.
Exposition of goods at the UIDB Trade Fair
He expressed satisfaction that UIDB students understand the liaison between the academic and business fair, which is being promoted by UIDB’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, Research and Innovation, UIDB-CERI. “The academic fair is being runned by the academic arm of the university and the business fair done by CERI. So, you see our two arms meeting at the fair ground. That’s why we are unique out here,” he said.
With a record of 15,000 people already visited the fair, made up of 70 stands, according to Fr. Nkeze, “there is creativity in what we’re doing. It’s attracting so many people and they are asking questions on how our students came about with this idea. We do not allow the companies who are accredited to the fair use their employees. Our students are working for them, marketing for them. This is helpful to our students because we’re opening them to the job market and creating networking opportunities for them,” he added.
Cameroon Telecommunications, CAMTEL exhibited its products at UIDB trade fair
The UIDB Pro-Chancellor described his institution as a 21st century university with hands-on training at the heart of their operations. “The 21st century economy is a digital economy, a hands-on economy. The skills that people need in the 21st century are different from the past centuries. What we need today are entrepreneurial creations, ability to work with others, and networking. At the UIDB Trade Fair, we’re testing what we teach in the classrooms.
We’re motivated by the good examples from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, USA. We’ve to pick up the skills of the 21st century economy, which are different from the traditional universities. If companies of the 21st century are not creative, research-oriented they will lose their place in the very competitive market place. That’s what we’re making our students to understand. UIDB is a university of the 21st Century,” he said.
Mgr Bushu tells UIDB pioneer graduates to be job creators and not job seekers
In the sidelines of the UIDB Trade Fair, the university, recently, graduated its first batch of students in the Higher National Diploma, HND. The 58 students who came in 2010, did a two year-programme in Management Sciences and Engineering respectively. The HND programmes and examinations are supervised by the government of Cameroon via the Ministry of Higher Education, with examinations centres in Bamenda, Douala and Yaoundé. From June 2013, there will be another examination centre in the University of Buea, the mentor University of UIDB.
The first convocation ceremony of UIDB was chaired by the institution’s proprietor and Bishop of Buea Diocese, Mgr. Immanuel Bushu.
Rev.Fr Michel Tchoumbou Ngantchop of the Archdiocese of Douala gave the academic discourse on the theme; Professional Saints & Scholars In Cameroon Today: The Joy Of Being Ruined By The Truth.
