The University of Cape Coast Governing Council, at its Special Meeting held on Wednesday, 24th Novemebr, 2021, appointed Prof. (Mrs.) Rosemond Boohene as the new Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University to take office from 1st January, 2022.

She takes over from the incumbent Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dora F. Edu-Buandoh, whose term of office ends on 31st December, 2021.

PROFILE

Prof. (Mrs.) Rosemond Boohene is a Professor of Enterprise Development at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development, School of Business, University of Cape Coast. She has served the institution for the past 24 years.

She holds a PhD from the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, MCom (Accounting) and PDipCom (Accounting) from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Professor Boohene also studied at the Galilee College, Israel and Open Polytechnic, New Zealand, qualifying with a Diploma in SME’s Management and Development and Certificate in Facilitating and Designing E-Learning (Level 5), respectively. She graduated from the University of Cape Coast with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) and a Diploma in Education. Professor Boohene is a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Alumna and has participated in various training programmes in higher education management, such as the Senior Academic Leadership Training for Senior University Managers held at the University of Ghana; Management of Internationalisation held at the Leibniz University, Germany; Higher Education Management for Anglophone African Countries held at the Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua China; and Higher Education Management and Leadership held at the University of Osnabruck, Germany. The extensive academic and managerial training in Ghana and abroad had empowered Professor Boohene with key competencies, capabilities and experiences to understand trending developments in the higher education arena as well as a high regard for research, scholarship, teaching and learning. It had further endowed her with the ability to think strategically and to have clear understanding of the modern complexities and the diversities within the higher education landscape.

Professor Boohene is currently the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development. She was also the former Head of Department of Management Studies, Vice-Dean of the School of Business, Dean for International Education, University of Cape Coast and a Visiting Professor at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany.  In all the positions held, Prof. Boohene showed proven capabilities as a team leader and inspired and motivated those she led. She showed excellent ability to treat staff and students with respect and developed and maintained a good working relationship with colleagues, students and external stakeholders. Again, she showed good negotiating skills, flexibility and open-mindedness, which helped her to make logical, well balanced and reasoned decisions.

She had extensively consulted for various organisations and had gained significant experience in working on research projects locally and internationally. She had served as an intermediary for the Council for Technical, Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), written proposals on behalf of Micro Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to source for funds and facilitated several workshops for Coastal Network Consortium in developing the capacities of staff of District Assemblies as part of the Functional and Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT) project. She had also managed projects for the EXIM Bank Ghana, Rainforest Alliance, European Union (EU), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ), and the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Electronic Waste Management and Entrepreneurship. In successfully executing these projects, Prof. Boohene showed demonstrable experience in leadership, project management and turning plans into action.

She also led a team to establish the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development, the Design Thinking and Innovation Hub, the University of Cape Coast Business incubator and the rolling out of a university-wide entrepreneurship course at UCC, which aimed at developing the entrepreneurial mind-sets and skills of students, graduates and the community. She also partnered with colleagues from the University of Turku, Finland to develop a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) sponsored online course on Entrepreneurial Universities.

Prof. Boohene has also been consulting for the Association of African Universities (AAU), which has over 400 members across the African Continent in the areas of Resource Mobilisation, Advancement, Industry-Academia Linkages and Entrepreneurship. She also partnered with the AAU to build the capacity of management and staff of the Botswana Accountancy College, University of Rwanda and the University of Namibia where she serves as a trustee to the University's Foundation. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Kwazulu Natal, School of Management, IT and Governance and Board Member of the African Network for International Education (ANIE). In addition, she had been working with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC)/National Accreditation Board (NAB) as a Panel Chair/Member for accreditation of programmes in various institutions in Ghana. In carrying out her duties with international partners, she had shown a very good track record of successful co-operation and collaborative working relationships, both internal and external in order to deliver the University’s way forward and to promote its visibility. She had demonstrated success and understood the importance of building close relationships and partnerships with some key influencers and agencies relevant to the University of Cape Coast.

Prof. Boohene was a member of the committee that developed the Strategic Plan (2018-2022) of the University of Cape Coast and also served on the University of Cape Coast 2016 Statutes Review committee. She had also assisted as a reviewer for various Journals, presented at conferences and published articles and book chapters in both local and international journals. Prof. Boohene is an external assessor and examiner for various Universities in Ghana and abroad.