Some 850 freshmen and women have completed a two-day Orientation exercise over the weekend organized by the administration of the College Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) at its Kossoh Town Campus.
In her opening remarks, chairperson of the Orientation Ceremony, Dr. Fatamata Taqi who also doubles as the University Marshal, admonished the students to focus on what they have been accepted to pursue at COMAHS and to take their courses seriously. She warned that as adults in a tertiary institution, no member of staff would urge them to attend lectures or to do their assignments on time. She further told the students about the existence of her Directorate, the Academic and Career Advisory and Counselling and Students Complaints Services (ACACSC), noting that its functions within the University system is to provide counselling services to students and also to serve as an office where students should feel free to lodge complaints against any member of staff that acts unfairly and unprofessionally to them. She cautioned however, that students should report first to their respective Heads of Departments if they felt aggrieved.
In her statement, the Assistant to Deputy Vice Chancellor of COMAHS, Prof. Isata Wurie, Dean of the Faculty of Laboratory Sciences and Diagnostics, who also deputized for both the Deputy Vice Chancellor of COMAHS and the Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone (USL), called on the students to comport themselves, to stand tall and to worth their salt.
She noted that the university is about students giving their time to learn and for the college and university administrations to provide the enabling environment for the students to learn. She added that students have to help the administration to shape the environment in which they are learning as well as shape their mindset and attitude. She said the orientation ceremony is meant to enable students to begin to understand their purpose of enrolling at the University and COMAHS particularly. She said the ball is in the court of the students in the sense that what they decide to do and how they do it is up to them because they have decided to enter into the world of adulthood.
Addressing the students, the Registrar of USL, Olive Kash Barrie said usually, only high-performing students enroll into COMAHS, adding that those at the orientation ceremony should consider themselves lucky, given the high number of applicants that applied to study this academic year.
She pointed out to the students that USL comprises three colleges – FBC, IPAM and COMAHS with the latter being the youngest of the three constituent colleges established in 1988 but which is contributing significantly to the development agenda of the country through the training and production of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other medical technicians.
On the structure of the University, Mrs. Barrie noted that USL is governed by the Universities Act, 2021 as the statutory document that makes provision for the University Court and Senate as the highest administrative and academic decision making bodies respectively that superintends all three constituent colleges.
As for the officers that run the day-to-day affairs of the University, the Registrar said that USL is headed by a Vice Chancellor and Principal as the academic and administrative head who sits at the University Secretariat at Tower Hill, and is deputized in each of the three campuses by a Deputy Vice Chancellor with Prof. Mohamed Samai as the DVC of COMAHS.
Dilating further, the Registrar said on the academic section, the colleges are divided into Faculties headed by Deans and that those Faculties are further divided into Departments and Institutes under which lecturers serve.
On the administrative side of things, she said there is the USL Registry with herself humble self as the central head and that on each of the campuses, there are Deputy Registrars heading the respective registries with Mr. Winston Webber as the head of the Registry of COMAHS. She added that within the central USL Registry, other important Directorates, Departments and Units exist including but not limited to the Finance Directorate, and each campus having a deputy with Mrs. Kojo Lansana as the Senior Assistant Finance Officer (SAFO) of COMAHS.
Earlier, welcoming the students whom have been accepted to pursue a Bachelor in Science and Diploma in Nursing and Pharmacy, the Deputy Registrar of COMAHS, Mr. Winston Webber explained the rationale for the orientation ceremony and urged the freshmen and women to pay attention to comprehend how the college and university system works.
This is the second orientation ceremony to be held this academic year for freshmen and women of COMAHS. The first orientation ceremony held in December 2022 comprised about One Thousand freshmen and women pursuing degrees in medicine and pharmacy.
