The University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Cincinnati (UC), Ohio in the United States of America have reviewed an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions.
The President of UC, Prof. Neville G. Pinto and the Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, under the renewal agreed to extend the period of collaboration between the two Universities as strategic partners for five years.
Prof. Neville G. Pinto expressed appreciation to UCC for being a strategic partner, and for the opportunities offered their students and staff especially in the area of study abroad programmes. He further expressed the readiness of UC to work to further expand the areas of collaboration.
Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, on his part, thanked UC for being a good and active partner and for working with UCC to establish the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He was also grateful for grants UCC staff enjoyed to travel for short programmes at UC. He used the opportunity to invite the President of UC to visit UCC.
A group shot of members present at the signing ceremony
Present at the signing ceremony from UC-Ohio were Dr. Raj Mehta, Vice Provost, International Affairs; Ms. Jenni Sutmoller, Director of International Strategic Partnerships and Prof Prince Ellis, Associate Professor of Economics and Finance.
The Vice-Chancellor’s visit to the University of Cincinnati, Ohio formed part of efforts to deepen UCC’s ties with some key strategic partners in the United States of America. Accompanying the Vice-Chancellor were Prof. David Teye Doku, Director, Directorate of Research, Innovation and Research (DRIC); Dr. Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi, Vice Dean of the Office of International Relations (OIR); Dr. Eugene Kwarteng-Nantwi, Coordinator for some of the Institutions being visited and Mr. Samuel Danso Akoto, President of the UCC Alumni Association in Ghana.
Delegations from both universities in a meeting
The UC team also agreed to help UCC train some of the faculty from SMS in specialty areas and at the PhD level. Finally, the UC team pledged to study the curriculum of UCC SMS to ensure harmony, while maintaining their distinctiveness, to enhance the collaboration.
The UCC delegation also visited the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences of UC. The team from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences agreed to work with UCC to put in place measures to train the first ten (10) faculty who will be recruited into the UCC School of Sustainable Engineering. They also agreed to review the curriculum of the new areas of engineering that were being developed at UCC and to collaborate with the faculty to give practical exposure to the UCC engineering students.
At the College of Pharmacy of UC, the UC team led by Dr. Chris Surratt, Dean of the College and the UCC team led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong agreed to work in new areas such as Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Sciences and Pharmacogenomics graduate programmes, research and faculty exchange and development. Further, a working team is to be established to drive the UC & UCC Pharmacy collaboration to harness opportunities for both universities.
UCC Team at the Digital Features Laboratory of UC
The UCC team visited the Innovation Centre and Digital Features Laboratory of UC to get first-hand information on facilities available and how these were helping to advance research, innovation and technology transfer at UC and the Cincinnati District.
Source: Office of International Relations (OIR)/Documentation and Information Section (DIS)-UCC