The College of Education Studies of University of Cape Coast (UCC) has bid farewell to Reeves Scholars from the Michigan State University, USA.

The Reeves Scholars Program (RSP) is a reciprocal exchange between future teachers at Michigan State University (MSU) in the United States and at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana.

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Some Reeves Scholars from both UCC and MSU at the farewell event

It also offers a close-knit learning community and international travel experiences that prepare future teachers to be open-minded, community-engaged, and globally-oriented leaders while strengthening their cross-cultural competence in and beyond their classrooms.

At the end of the academic year, all Reeves Scholars will participate in four weeks of high-impact transnational experiences when they visit each other’s countries and campuses in both Ghana and the USA.

In a short address, the Provost of the College of Education Studies-UCC, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, said the programme was aimed at building a generation of future teachers who will become global agents. He said the programme seeks to broaden the horizon of students and the College would sustain it to enable other students benefit.

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^{Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis}

He further praised the coordinators of the Reeves Scholars Programme - Dr. Foster Ntow and Dr. Rita Adzovie - for the determination that accompanied their efforts to ensure the visiting students had salutary academic experience in Ghana. He expressed hope that Reeves Scholars from UCC would equally have a good experience in the US.

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 ^{Dr. Foster Ntow}

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^{Dr. Rita Adzovie receiving a gift from a beneficiary student.}

For his part, the Coordinator of the Michigan State University, Dr. Upenyu S. Majee, thanked the College for the hospitality accorded the delegation of US students. He said the relationship between Michigan State University and UCC had become even stronger with the visit of the students to Ghana.

To show their love and appreciation to the College for the reception, various gifts were presented to the College. In turn, the College Registrar, Mr. Atta Yeboah-Sarpong, as well as the Reeves Scholars from UCC, also presented kente to the visiting students.

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^{A student receiving a kente from the College Registrar, Mr. Atta Yeboah-Sarpong.}

Later in the evening, a dinner banquet was held in honour of the Reeves Scholars from Michigan State University.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC

The second World Conference on Transformative Education has opened at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The three-day conference which has converged academicians across the globe, is on the theme: "The Future of Africa and the Role of Transformative Education." The conference is aimed at seeking solutions to improve the quality of education from kindergarten to higher education.

Opening the programme, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Rosemond Boohene, who represented the Vice-Chancellor, noted that education had transitioned from the traditional focus of literacy and numeracy to modern trends of skills in critical thinking, information literacy, global awareness, technology literacy, among others. She said Ghana had become aware of the need to adopt these modern trends to produce a generation of educators equipped with 21st century skills to push its national and developmental agenda.

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^{Pro Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Rosemond Boohene}

In light of this, the Pro Vice-Chancellor said the leadership of education in the country had introduced standard-based curriculum to produce full-fledged students ready for the fourth industrial revolution.

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^{A group photo of some participants in the opening ceremony of the conference}

Prof. Boohene said it was incumbent on educators to be abreast of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate effective teaching and learning, stressing that "AI is leading the world."

Addressing participants on the topic, "A vision for African Education in the age of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies", an Associate Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina, USA, Prof. Charles Hutchison, observed that current competitive market forces would compel human beings to save their minds on memory chips in the foreseeable future. According to him, Elon Musk (an American business magnate and investor) had developed Neuralink (implantable brain–computer interfaces) which had two bits of equipment.  

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^{Associate Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina, USA, Prof. Charles Hutchison}

"The first is a chip that would be implanted in a person's skull, with electrodes fanning out into their brain. The second is a robot that could automatically implant the chip" he continued.

Prof. Hutchison encouraged academicians and educationists to leverage on the advantages Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents in all disciplines.

Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) has granted the University of Cape Coast,UCC, a full-fledged membership.

The move makes it possible for researchers at the University of Cape Coast to participate in all ARUA activities including conferences, workshops, training programmes and research projects.  Member universities are obliged to be active in all the affairs of the network, as well as in the work of the Centres of Excellence, as well as expected to participate fully in the development and restructuring of graduate and research programmes across the region.

The Executive Committee at an earlier meeting offered conditional admission to UCC subject to satisfying all of the eligibility criteria. The meeting, chaired by the ARUA Board Chair, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, declared its satisfaction with the effort made by University of Cape Coast to meet the eligibility criteria as reflected in the data made available about the University and its performance over the last five years.

The development makes it possible for researchers at the University of Cape Coast to participate in all ARUA activities, including conferences, workshops, training programmes and research projects.  

Member universities are obliged to be active in all the affairs of the network, as well as in the work of the Centres of Excellence, as well as expected to participate fully in the development and restructuring of graduate and research programmes across the region.

In a congratulatory message to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, ARUA Secretary-General, Professor Ernest Aryeetey said he looked forward to seeing the University’s contribution to the life and work of ARUA to enhance the development of research in the member universities and on the continent.

ARUA is a network of like-minded universities that are anxious to grow the research portfolio at their universities through collaboration. ARUA universities are desirous to make Africa’s contribution to the global generation of knowledge more noticeable. Most of the work to achieve this is carried out through the 13 Centres of Excellence located at some of the member universities of ARUA.

The University of Cape Coast is one of the leading institutions of higher education in Ghana and nurtures a vision of becoming a university with a worldwide acclaim that is strongly positioned for innovative teaching, research, outreach and professional development.

The collaboration between ARUA and the University of Cape Coast provides further opportunity to leverage research capacity to tackle trans-national and regional challenges across the continent.ARUA is indeed happy to receive University of Cape Coast as a full member.

Credit:Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC)