 university council endorses first ug honorary doctorates university council endorses first ug honorary doctorates university council endorses first ug honorary doctorates webmaster mon 11122018 817 history was created when on the recommendation of the university of guyana academic board the university council at its 2018 annual business meeting on thursday november 8 unanimously adopted the proposal to confer the university s first honorary doctorate degrees upon four outstanding guyanese at the 52nd convocation of the turkeyen campus to be held on saturday november 10 2018 at the national cultural center in commenting on this milestone in the 55 years of the institution chancellor of the university professor eon nigel harris said the recognition of individuals who have distinguished themselves through their diverse accomplishments and exemplary service with the award of honorary degrees is a university tradition that dates to the middle ages i share the delight of our university of guyana in initiating these awards it represents yet another step in the transformative growth of our university the honorary degree recipients to be conferred with the doctor of letters dlitt have all made their mark in their respective fields of music business philanthropy and indigenous rights at the ceremony which begins at 900 h mr edmond eddy grant will be conferred for excellence in music and civic engagement and mr yesu persaud for iconic leadership in business and banking mr jairaj jay sobhraj will be conferred at the second ceremony at 1300 h for excellence in entrepreneurship and philanthropy while ms laura george will be conferred at the third ceremony which begins at 1700 h for outstanding community development and advocacy the honorary doctorates are being bestowed in accordance the university of guyana act section 18 e which grants the university the legal authority to confer honorary degrees and other distinctions provided that all degrees and other distinctions so conferred shall be conferred and held subject to any provision which are or may be made in reference thereto by the university moreover one of the powers of academic board under statute 152 d is to make recommendation to the council with respect to the award to any person of an honorary fellowship or honorary degree or title of professor emeritus the current proposal had successfully passed through all previous vetting procedures university vice chancellor professor ivelaw lloyd griffith noted that this historic conferral is part of the renaissance pursuits of the university which entails rebuilding and rebranding the university central to which is celebrating exemplars of excellence in order to inspire young and notsoyoung citizens i am honoured to have the opportunity to place the spotlight on these four outstanding citizens the honorands will join more than 1700 students from faculties of agriculture and forestry earth and environmental sciences education and humanities engineering and technology health sciences natural sciences social sciences and the school of entrepreneurship who will be conferred with degrees diplomas and certificates  ug in brief  with a current enrollment of some 8000 students the university of guyana ug has graduated more than 20000 students who have gone on to successful careers locally regionally and internationally the university is also a major contributor to the national economy and to business and industry established in 1963 on a parttime basis with shared space at queens college ug moved to its own campus at turkeyen in 1970 and expanded in 2000 with the addition of the tain campus it now offers more 116 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes including the natural sciences engineering environmental studies forestry urban planning and management tourism studies education creative arts economics law medicine business optometry and nursing several online programmes are available and the ug also offers extramural classes at four locations through its institute of distance and continuing education idce the ug also offers the opportunity for student engagement in debating sports and cultural religious and professional activities  