Jamaican opposition leader with Dr Jeffrey K. Thompson, president, Cayman Islands Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (CICSDA)

He said over the years university campuses in Jamaica "have lost much of their fire" as they have moved from being cauldrons of intellectual ferment which challenged the status quo and confronted economic, social and political issues, to commercial commodities involving significant  financial liabilities.

"I am not necessarily suggesting that university students should start organizing sit-ins, burning flags and raising ruckus," he said.

"But if you're to be real leaders of tomorrow you cannot be prepared to accept that what is now here is good enough and must continue to be. Some (university campuses) have been quite inert and graduates have tended to go with the flow."

He warned the graduates to avoid the sense of powerlessness pervading the society.

"The feeling that there is little that you can do, because that sense of powerlessness is the  threshold of  hopelessness."

The Opposition Leader said Jamaica finds itself in a dilemma, as it is at this time when they are needed most, that "the brightest minds" are leaving.

While praising NCU for graduating its largest numbers ever, 1028 graduates, he said Jamaica was not producing too many graduates, instead, "our  economy has not expanded to absorb and fully utilize the skills you have acquired."

He challenged the graduates to ensure that human development is placed at the centre of  their professional endeavours, as in spite of the development of science and technology, human development has not followed.

"If the most significant achievement of the last millennium is its scientific and technological advancement, the most compelling challenge must be how to get human development to catch up with science and technology."

Even as he called on the graduates to be crusaders in reshaping and redefining society's values, Golding called for a "renaissance, a re-affirmation of the values of  truth, honesty and integrity, a consensus on what is wrong and what is right.

"The collective will of a society is far more powerful and effective than any law, no matter how rigidly enforced," he said.