The University of Cape Coast (UCC has held an International Symposium as part of activities heralding the peak of the 60th anniversary celebration of the University,
On the theme, “60 Years of Quality Education, Expanding the Frontiers: Experiences and Lessons from International Partners”, the event was organized by the Office of the International Relations of UCC.
The President of Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI) in Israel, Dr. Joseph Shevel, speaking as the keynoter at the event, indicated that education was the bedrock of the development of every country and urged Ghana to increase education and investment to unlock the potentials of its youth.
He admitted that “Education is a problematic field for politics because we see the results of education usually in the next generation but politicians want to see the results before the next elections.”
Consequently, he stated that quality education was the bedrock for achieving sustainable and inclusive development and its impact on improving all sectors of the economy could not be underestimated.
Dr. Shevel, who spoke on the theme, “Emerging higher education frontiers experiences from Israel; lessons for African education” attributed Israel’s high investment in education and training to its economic successes and challenged Ghanaian universities to take a leaf out of Israeli universities.
The President of GIMI said Israel was the number one in the world in research and development, saying Israel had the biggest share in the technology industry with sixty-three (63) different companies through education.
He claimed that Israel was the only nation in the Middle East with no water, mineral resources or oil, but had made remarkable strides on the continent as a result of the importance attached to education.
“While Ghana invested less than two (2) per cent of GDP in education, Israel invested 7.3 per cent” Prof. Shevel added.
Touching on agriculture, he predicted that Ghana’s water bodies could be adversely affected by global warming and called on the leadership of the country to take immediate steps to forestall any calamity.
In the midst of abundant rainfall and water bodies, he expressed shocked that only a paltry 50 per cent of Ghana’s population was into agriculture, the mainstay of the Ghanaian economy, but contributing only 20 per cent to the GDP.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, in his welcome address, stressed the need for tertiary institutions to establish global partnerships in order to create mutually beneficial relationships.
He said it was through such international partnerships that culminated into UCC becoming the first University in Ghana, West Africa and fourth in Africa.
“So indeed, working closely with our strategic partners, has helped the University of Cape Coast to become the number one University not only in Ghana and in West Africa, but the 4th on the continent. In terms of our research influence, we are at the 24th position; at least we are making progress” the Vice-Chancellor added.
Prof. Nyarko Boampong indicated that such partnerships had helped the university to get grants, citing the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences’ partnership with USAID as a key example.
Present at the symposium were delegations from the Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, University of Rhode Island, University of Limerick, Millersville, and International Fellowship of Korea.
The delegations, in turn, shared their best practices with UCC, as well as ways UCC could adopt to remain competitive in the world.
Source: Documentation and Information Section-UCC