The commitment of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, to transform UCC into a world-class entrepreneurial university has received a major boost following the launch of the Ghana Britain Partnership for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GB-PIE) project.

The GB-PIE project is aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship amongst the youth through knowledge transfer programmes.

It also seeks to provide a platform for increasing the visibility of other Innovation for African Universities (IAU) projects running in Ghana.

Launching the Project, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Mrs. Rosemond Boohene, encouraged students to be innovative and create their own jobs after school. She further urged them to take advantage of all the entrepreneurship programmes on campus. While expressing regret over complaints by graduates due to the unavailability of jobs, Prof Boohene challenged them to start their own businesses after completing tertiary institution. The Pro Vice-Chancellor also entreated faculty members to modernize their teachings to develop the mindset of their students to "encourage empowerment, experiential learning, cooperation and reflective learning.”

Speaking further, she called for sustainable entrepreneurship, where young people would not enter into business and afterwards their business activities would impact negatively on the socio-economic development of the country.

"While we are encouraging our young people to go into entrepreneurship, we will give them the idea of impact investment, where when you invest, you will get your financial returns and also take care of the environment,” she added.

She also encouraged white-collar workers to also enter into entrepreneurship, stressing that entrepreneurship was not reserved for the unemployed.

“When we say entrepreneurship, we are not looking at people starting their own business but even when you are employed within an organization you could still engage in entrepreneurial activities and that is intra-entrepreneurship,” Prof. Boohene stated.

The GB-PIE Project Lead, Prof. Desmond Omane Acheampong, in his opening remarks, noted that the African youth population was rapidly growing with a projection of the number doubling to over 830 million by 2050.

“Hence,” Prof. Acheampong added “if properly harnessed, this increase in the working age population could promote high productivity with a more robust economic growth across our continent.”

Prof. Acheampong explained it was against that backdrop the British Council designed and introduced the Innovation for African Universities (IAU) programme, which aims at strengthening the capacity of universities to participate and provide meaningful contributions as key players within the entrepreneurship ecosystem in their respective regions.

Prof. Acheampong, who is also the Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, noted that the project was “timely as it is in sync with the vision of the leadership of UCC which seeks to make the UCC an entrepreneurial university.”

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC

The University of Cape Coast, UCC, has donated a four-wheel scooter to a physically challenged alumnus to aid his movement. The beneficiary, Mr. Paul Biney, graduated UCC in 2021.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, handing over the mobility aid to Mr. Biney at the recently held UCC at 60 Celebration launch, said the donation was part of the University’s corporate social responsibility.

According to him, while on a visit at CoDE on campus, he was saddened by the mobility difficulties Mr. Biney was confronted with while he made his way to attend a lecture. This prompted the move for the support.

To further demonstrate the commitment of UCC to the welfare of its students with disabilities, Prof. Boampong announced that the University would offer Mr. Biney temporary employment, whilst waiting for financial clearance from government to offer him permanent employment in the University.

For his part, Provost of the College of Distance Education (CoDE), Prof Isaac Galyuon, said the donation was a dream-come-true and indicated that his College would continue to work towards creating equal opportunities for Persons Living with Disabilities at the various CoDE centres.

In this light, he announced that constructors working on CoDE infrastructural projects across the country have been instructed to make them disability friendly.

Prof. Galyuon added that CoDE would cover the cost of maintenance of the scooter for one year.

Receiving the mobility aid, Mr. Biney was grateful to the University for the support.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC

The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has described the University of Cape Coast (UCC) as the forefront of education transformation in the country.

He has, therefore, called on the University to come up with educational ideas to expand the frontiers of quality education in the country.

Dr. Osei Adutwum made these remarks when he launched the 60th anniversary celebration of the University. The celebration is on the theme "60 years of Quality Higher Education: "Expanding the Frontiers".

According to him, educational ideas should not be left in the hands of politicians. He therefore urged UCC to come up with innovative ideas to transform the education sector. He expressed disquiet that with the advent of technology, some faculty members of tertiary institutions still insist their students learn by rote.

"…For your nation to be competitive, we need to change how to teach and how students learn. Our nation will not become competitive unless we stop rote memorization in our classrooms" the minister stressed.

Dr. Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe Constituency in the Ashanti Region, noted that Ghana was in lack of teachers for children with special needs, especially speech therapists. Consequently, he appealed to UCC management to consider the training of speech therapists to facilitate the teaching and learning of children with special needs.

As regards Ghana's quest to transform and improve education with the Introduction of Science, technology, Engineering and technology, (STEM), the minister appealed to UCC to lead the way in STEM education and to train teachers to handle STEM subjects at the Senior high schools.

At the basic level in Cape Coast, Dr. Adutwum pointed out that learning outcomes were extremely low as basic school children were unable to read basic words.

"Cape Coast is the citadel of learning and it must not be the place where they have poor learning outcomes. Cape Coast students get to Primary six (6) and they cannot read. Let us change Cape Coast and that will be the lasting legacy of UCC", he observed.

Dr. Adutwum also tasked faculty to volunteer and visit basic schools in Cape Coast to encourage pupils to take their studies seriously. Such visitations by faculty, he underscored, would imprint on the minds of the school children, who would strive hard to become like them in future. In realising this, the minister appealed to UCC management to set up a "Neighbourhood Academic Initiative" aimed at mentoring and guiding basic school children in Cape Coast to achieve their academic dreams. Dr. Adutwum promised to donate a vehicle emblazoned with "UCC Neighbourhood Academic Initiative" to facilitate the transportation of the volunteers.

He said the academic results of the Free Senior High School graduates lent credence to quality education in the country and announced that the transition of all SHS from double track system to single track. Dr. Adutwum added that next year, a huge number of schools would move to the single track system. He disagreed with persons who criticised his Ministry for posting students with abysmal grades to first class Senior High schools such as Wesley Girls, Adisadel College among others.

To him, the first class schools had the best teachers to transform such students with poor grades. He noted such transformations would justify the reputations of such schools as the best in the country.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC