Higher education is an important goal for many and it’s evident by the large number of people working to acquire degrees in undergraduate and graduate studies. Some students put a huge amount of effort into their studies and graduate with exceptional academic grades. Others do not focus on their studies and put minimal amount of effort to pass their classes and earn a degree. In a perfect world, students who perform exceptionally well should not have a problem finding excellent jobs to be successful in their careers. However, the reality is both exceptional and ordinary students are faced with similar experiences in job opportunities and successes. This is the reality! The big question is what is the psychological impact on undergraduates and how does one explain correctly the realism that academic success does not necessarily translate to job success.
Today, I was at the academic division of the Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH) to receive collated results for 14 students on the UniCem – Gede Foundation Education Support Programme. As I studied the results I would say that on average it is ‘good’. It came to mind that I could get an opinion from one of the awardee on who has just graduated on this matter-
My name is Eso, Eso John a graduate of Banking and Finance. I had the privilege of the award of scholarship from Lafarge Africa Plc (UniCem) through my study time at the University. It’s a misconception that financial aid translates to academic successes. Academic success is influenced by motivations, parenting encouragement, studying techniques, ability to manage academic stress, ability to identify correctly one strength and weakness, ability to over procrastination to mention but a few. A student who has these and financial aid would make an excellent academic performance. It is true that jobs are limited now but any graduate who has no additional skill will not have job success with or without good academic successes. Additional skills such as adventure, entrepreneurial skill, ICT competence, ability to work with others and so on are important in job search, therefore, I would advocate for additional initiatives to the financial aid to make awardees have advantage over others after graduation.
By Ekaette Udoekong