| Wani Roslan |
SOME 750 Politeknik Brunei (PB) students graduated and received their diploma certificates at the institution’s Fourth Convocation Ceremony at the Chancellor Hall of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) yesterday.
The guest of honour, Minister of Education Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman, presented the certificates to the graduates.
The ceremony began with the student procession and main procession by PB’s Board of Governors members, Senate members, main officers and lecturers.
This was followed by the recitation of Al-Quran verses by Awangku Adi Nazri bin Pengiran Haji Jofri, a Level 5 Diploma in Business Finance student from the polytechnic’s fifth intake who is also the second runner-up at the 7th Southeast Asian Youth Al-Quran Reading Competition 2015, with translation read by Awangku Abdul Razzaq bin Pengiran Kamarulzaman, a Level 5 Diploma in Business Studies student.
In his opening remarks, PB Director Denis Ho Mun Tai who is also Chairman of the convocation ceremony working committee, said the institution has been successful in producing graduates capable of contributing to the country’s development and realising Vision 2035.
He said, “Since our establishment in 2012, PB has received an increasing number of applications year-on-year, and as of September 2018, our total student population is 2,053.”
He shared a number of achievements made by PB since its last convocation in January 2017, such as the high number of graduates from the institution’s third and fourth intake going on to further their studies (36 per cent of the students) and an increasing number of graduates from the two batches who have found employment (64 per cent and 71 per cent respectively).
He added that the institution received an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 certificate in November 2017 for its Diploma Level 5 in Business, Information and Communication Technology, and Science and Engineering programmes.
“To ensure our programmes are relevant (to industry), a development programme has been identified and introduced in which current programmes or new programmes or modules that are going to be offered will be given a systematic review to ensure their contents are relevant with current global challenges,” he said.
This year’s convocation saw 170 graduates receiving certificates for the Level 5 Diploma in Business, 199 graduates receiving the Level 5 Diploma in ICT, 277 graduates receiving certificates in Science and Engineering, and 104 receiving their Level 4 Diploma in Health Science.
Academic excellence awards were also presented to a number of selected students, with 11 receiving the Academic Excellence Award, three receiving the Enrichment Excellence Award, and 15 being handed the Innovation Award.
The ceremony concluded with the recitation of Doa Selamat by Mosque Affairs Officer at the Ministry of Religious Affairs Haji Azrol Alim bin Haji Zaini.