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)

The Directorate of Research Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) has organised a seminar on grant proposal writing.

It was on the theme " Structure and essentials of a winnable grant proposal ".

Speaking at the programme, Director of DRIC, Prof. David Doku, said good proposal was a precondition to attract grant.

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Director of DRIC, Prof. David Doku

"No grant comes through without a proposal. To win a grant, you must write a good proposal", he added.

Prof. Doku noted that grant proposal was needed because " it requires funding, helps plan the proposed research and help to organise research in a logical, focused and effective way."

Prof. Doku singled out project title and acronym, cover letter, executive summary, need statement, goals and objectives and methodology as major components of a grant proposal.

He also mentioned that " a need statement is a compelling description of the need or problem to be addressed by the applicant.

" In a need statement, your organisation should have the mandate to address the need; the need statement should address the call, and many more," he continued.

He advised that the need statement should be sweet, concise and simple and easily digestible.

In the process of writing a need strategy, Prof. Doku mentioned that “we state clearly what the need is, we use clear and credible statistics to support our argument, give clear sense of urgency and the need statement should be persuasive without being wordy".

He added that a good need statement gives the viewer the needed information to understand the objectives and approaches in the proposal, builds up towards answering a specific question that is unknown, discuss relevant data on the subject, etc.

Prof. Doku emphasised that a research plan must be so detailed that an independent researcher could carry out the study based on the plan.

 He added that to write a good proposal, one must read the call very well.