By Stephen V. Lansana
The Faculty of Acts, Fourah Bay College (FBC), University of Sierra Leone (USL) has on Thursday, December 7, 2023, commenced a two-day Postgraduate Symposium for students pursuing their postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Acts with the theme: Building students research and interdisciplinary capacity at the Multipurpose Hall, FBC campus in Freetown.
The symposium was well attended by postgraduate students within the faculty and senior lecturers, Deans and Heads of departments.
The symposium which ended on Friday, December 8, 2023.
A Senior Lecturer and Symposium Committee Chairperson, Dr Leopold Foullah said that a committee was formed which comprised senior lecturers to organise the first symposium for postgraduate students.
The Dean of the Faculty of Acts, FBC, Prof. Aisha Fofana Ibrahim said that the idea of this program is to provide an opportunity for the postgraduate students to talk about their research project within the supporting scholarly environment.
She said there will not be negative criticism but a place where the network and share ideas about theory, practice and policies which address pressing issues of our time.
She noted that this is an opportunity for them to think deeply about the significant of postgraduate studies. “This might be your first time, but I would want you to be relaxed. Just remember that academic research is systematic research to build knowledge,” she said, noting that as they listen to their colleagues’ research, they should ask relevant questions.
She said that research is a formalised curiosity.
The Dean of School of Post -Graduate Studies, Prof. Ronnie Fraser-Williams said that this is a laudable initiative because it fits within the curriculum of postgraduate studies.
He said that academic symposium is the modern trend of university education. He disclosed that one of his concerns over the years had been that many of their students are not be willing to compete with the international students because they have not created the platform for their students to compete, noting that Nigeria is one country that always competes.
He said that the symposium is a welcome idea to the School of Postgraduate Studies.
Representing the Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) of FBC, the assistant to the DVC of FBC, Dr. Jinnah Momoh said, as a college administration, they are pleased with this initiative as it will build academic excellence. He called on all and sundry to help postgraduate students to develop their research so that they will come up with better research. “What Faculty of Acts has started is what the university has developed which will be implemented at a university level in which postgraduate students will participate in symposium before graduation,” he said.
He said that the purpose of this symposium is to allow experts to examine the papers.
Representing the Registrar of USL, the Registrar of FBC, Dr. BRIMA Bah said that the symposium is coming at a time when they are charged as a university to take leadership.
He said that the Faculty of Acts is a faculty that trains their core functionaries in the country, noting that this will be an annual event. He congratulated the faculty for this commendable achievement.
In his keynote address, Prof. Ibrahim Abdullah said that “if this task is going to be the norms of the faculty, the question is, is there institutional support?”
He said that the issue of research should be supported.
“The second question is, how many departments within the faculty that speaks to excellence? We all have our own research areas and specialities,” he said. He said that if the supervisor is ignorant the student will be ignorant too. There are six units within the faculty and all of them are considered as interdisciplinary departments.