President Irfaan Ali yesterday extended congratulations to the University of Guyana’s (UG) Class of 2025, calling the graduates the true drivers of Guyana’s development even as the country faces one of the world’s most severe human-capital crises. In a Facebook message, Ali said that while the economy is accelerating and infrastructure expanding, the country’s future rests squarely on the capabilities of its people.
“Our economy is expanding, our infrastructure is growing, and our society is evolving in ways once thought impossible. The real engine of this transformation is not oil or investment; it is people. It is you,” the President told graduates. He added that, “The Guyana we are building needs engineers and educators, innovators and entrepreneurs, health professionals and policy thinkers. It needs citizens equipped with the knowledge, skills and values to propel the country forward.”
Ali emphasised that the value of a university is not reflected in its student numbers alone. “A world-class university… is not measured by its enrollment figures, but by the impact of its graduates and their capacity to drive national transformation,” he stated.
This year, UG is celebrating its 59th convocation, awarding degrees to 3,600 students—the largest graduating class in the institution’s 62-year history. Ceremonies began on November 20 and conclude today at Turkeyen, with a separate ceremony scheduled for December 6 at the Tain Campus. Graduates include students from several new programmes, such as the Certificate in Dual Language/Multilingual Practice in Education, the Postgraduate Certificate in Trauma and Grief Resilience, and the MSc in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing.
But the celebration unfolds against a troubling backdrop: Guyana continues to experience one of the highest levels of tertiary-level migration in the world. A 2018 University of Guyana newsletter reported that 93% of the country’s tertiary-educated population has migrated, placing Guyana among the global leaders in “brain drain.” Additional reports from 2020 and later confirm that the country’s emigration levels remain extraordinarily high, with the growing diaspora becoming a pressing national concern.
Despite repeated warnings from economists, academics, and civil society, government policy has yet to effectively confront the crisis. The absence of competitive compensation, limited opportunities for professional advancement, uneven working conditions, and slow public-sector reform all contribute to a system that continues to funnel skilled graduates abroad rather than retain them.
While President Ali praised graduates as the human engine of Guyana’s future, critics argue that without meaningful and immediate intervention to reduce the outflow of trained professionals, the nation risks perpetuating a cycle in which it trains talent primarily for foreign labour markets. The contradiction is becoming sharper: Guyana celebrates larger graduating classes each year, yet the human capital essential to sustaining national growth continues to slip away.
Ali’s message underscores the importance of people to national transformation. The crucial test now is whether the government will translate that message into policies strong enough to keep more of these graduates at home.
