MONROVIA: The Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Liberia on Monday, 22 July 2024 officially resumed thesis defense for candidates of the 104th graduating class.
The academic exercise is being held at the Thelma E Duncan Sawyer Faculty Lounge in Fendall, outside Monrovia, under the supervision of the College’s Thesis Committee, a penal of distinguished professors and scholars.
As part of the ACS College curricula, it is mandatory that all candidates submit to the academic requirement for a successful completion for students to earn a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the institution.
The most outstanding student from the ongoing thesis defense will be offered a fully funded master’s degree Scholarship for studies at Sharda University in Knowledge Park, New Delhi, India. At the end of the thesis defense exercise, the penal will make the determination.
The thesis penal impartially, independently and objectively able to evaluate the student’s academic work to ensure that the candidate knows the content and topic of the research.
The thesis writing and defense remained dormant for years at the college. However, they were reactivated across the entire college by Prof./ Dr. Josephus Moses Gray, upon his appointment as Dean of the Amos C Sawyer College.
The exercise has been taking place for the past three years as one of the major requirements for a successful completion of studies.
The second group of candidates from the Social Work Unit on Monday presented and defended their research works in front of the penal of professors, Chairpersons, officials of UL 104th Class and the Dean of the College.
Besides the candidates from the Social Work Unit, one candidate (a physically challenged student) from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology also participated in the thesis defense. It was so emotional to witness a handicap student in a wheelchair in front of the thesis committee, defending his research findings while other able body candidates are refusing to submit to this unique academic exercise.
Prior to the start of the thesis exercise, Dr. Gray used the first thirty-five minutes to report to the College about his successful trip to India to represent the University of Liberia and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees to Sharda University International Convocation held 29 June 2024, at Knowledge Park, Greater Norda, New Delhi.
About 16 distinguished Liberians earned Bachelor and Master’s degrees in various disciplines from Sharda University in Modern History, Linguistics, Supply Chain and Logistics, Biotechnology, Sociology, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science and Civil Engineering.
Speaking at the Monday’s thesis defense, Dr. Gray reiterated how it was mandatory for all prospective graduates of the ACS College to appear in front of the penal to participate in the thesis defense.
He warned that any candidate who fails to participate in the required academic exercise to defend his/her thesis wouldn’t be allowed to graduate.
Dr. Gray said although he is fully aware that there are plans to undermine the ongoing unique thesis defense, equally so, the College is most determined to ensure that the objective of the thesis defense is achieved.
He appealed to the students of the College, particularly prospective graduates not to allow themselves to be used to protest against the ongoing unique thesis defense.
According to Dr. Gray, the ACS College thesis defense is basically a twenty-minute long presentation where candidate demonstrate knowledge of not only his/her work concerning his/her course of study.
There are some general guidelines the candidates are to strictly follow. The thesis defense is based on the University of Liberia approved thesis format and guidelines.
He stressed that thesis defense is designed so that the penal of professors can ask open-ended questions and make sure that the students actually understand the field and focus area of research.
The Advisor to the Thesis Committee, Prof. Dr. D. Elliott Wreh-Wilson also spoke at the occasion.
He encouraged the students to take advantage of the required academic exercise. He praised the candidates from the Social Work Unit for their efforts and research topics which he described necessary and important to Liberia.
He frowned on the persistent disruption of academic activities by students which he said hampered quality learning.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Department of Political Science, Assistant Professor Richmond S Anderson discussed the importance of thesis defense and encouraged the prospective graduates to defy all odds and appear before the penal for the exercise.
He appealed to all Chairpersons and coordinators to allow their students to defend their research works based on the college’s polices.
The Amos C Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities require that students devote an entire semester to complete the research. They work with advisor on a close basis to make sure that the research stays on schedule and meets the benchmarks before submission to the office of the Dean for onward submission to the penal to assign a date to defend the work.
Meanwhile, candidates from the Departments of Communication and Media Studies and French Studies will today, Wednesday, July 24, participate in the ongoing thesis defense, scheduled at 10:00 a.m in the Thelma E Duncan Sawyer Faculty Lounge in Fendall.