The Aga Khan University’s 10th convocation ceremony was held today at the Aga Khan Pavilion and Complex, Limuru Road, Nairobi. The colourful ceremony was presided over by Mr Yusuf Keshavjee, member of the Board of Trustees, Dr Greg Moran, the University Provost and Mr Firoz Rasul, President of the University. It was attended by vice-chancellors, senior government officials, diplomats, national and international academicians, donors and prominent citizens.
The ceremony saw 54 students graduating, 27 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and 11 with a Kenya Registered Community Health Nursing Diploma. Sixteen graduands earned Master of Medicine with specialties in Anaesthesiology, Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, General Surgery, Imaging and Diagnostic Radiology, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Paediatrics and Child Health.
In his speech, Mr Macharia said that the health workforce is a key pillar in the development of Kenya. He noted that there is need to increase the number of skilled healthcare personnel as well as healthcare facilities in the region, to enable access to quality care for all Kenyans – a constitutional right of a citizen.
He applauded the work of Aga Khan Development Network in health care, education and economic development and thanked the University for its investment in international standard healthcare facilities in East Africa and for its dedication in building capacity in the healthcare sector by training doctors and nurses.
Mr Macharia thanked the University Hospital for its leading role in supporting the victims of the Westgate Mall terrorist attack. Last year, Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) was awarded an international accreditation by the US-based Joint Commission International, which constitutes the gold standard in hospital quality and patient safety around the world.
Honourable Macharia congratulated the graduands and urged them to choose to invest the education that they have earned to build a more prosperous future for Kenya and for East Africa.
In his welcome remarks Mr Firoz Rasul noted that this year’s convocation has a special significance as the University also marks 30 years of its founding by the Chancellor, His Highness the Aga Khan.
He said that the University continues to be committed to building capacity in the healthcare sector by training doctors and nurses. In East Africa, the University offers Advanced Nursing Studies programmes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; and Postgraduate Medical Education in Kenya and Tanzania through the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Medical College and School of Nursing and Midwifery. The university currently has a needs blind admission policy and subsidizes 75 per cent of the students tuition fee. In 2013 the university tuition subsidy in its East Africa programmes was over US$13 million.
The University is working to develop its principal East African campus in Arusha, which will offer liberal arts undergraduate and graduate education as well as house graduate professional schools in disciplines that are relevant to the needs of this region. The first graduate professional school, in Media and Communications will be launched next year in Nairobi.
Plans are also underway to establish a comprehensive teaching and referral hospital in Kampala, Uganda while the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam is also establishing a world-class heart and cancer care with a proposed investment of over US$80 million.
The assistance that the university has received from international partners and donors and specifically recognised and thanked Johnson and Johnson, the Lundin Foundation and the Rotary International Foundation. Each of them have contributed towards education of AKU nursing students in East Africa. He called on donors to further support these programmes to enable the University achieve its ambitious agenda.
Mr Rasul said that the university hospital is also enhancing its patient welfare programme to assist underprivileged patients. Last year over 90 million shillings or over one million dollars was utilised to help patients who were unable to afford quality healthcare, mostly for cancer treatment. This programme is supported by hospital revenues and contributions from the corporate sector, individuals and well-wishers. Over 70,000 people a year in all the three countries, but mostly focused in semi urban centres in Kenya, have access to free of cost medical camps and public education sessions run by qualified health professionals from AKUH.
He concluded by congratulating the graduands urging them to follow in the footsteps of AKU alumni who have maintained leadership roles in their careers, making a difference in the communities that they live in.
