Constructing Research Frameworks on the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa’s Policy Environment
2-14 April 2018 (University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
The University of Cape Coast, UCC, has launched its maiden research report for the collective benefit of society. The 184-page document, issued by the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC), comprises research output from the colleges and other research directorates and centres of the University. Spanning 2012 to 2016, the report also covers a plethora of research areas in the Arts, Education, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences and the Natural Sciences undertaken by individuals, departments, and faculties, either independently or in collaboration with other institutions, government and non-governmental organizations, donor agencies and development partners. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, who launched the report, said the University remained committed to research and was open for collaborative research efforts with other research -oriented individuals, academic institutions of higher learning, industry and development partners for cutting- edge research activities that would advance the frontiers of knowledge for sustainable development. In the light of this, Prof. Ampiah encouraged faculty to always endeavour to research so as to make themselves and the university visible across the world. He also charged lecturers to produce at least one high quality research informed article every year. He commended researchers in the university for their publications over the last five years and entreated other faculty members to research to enable DRIC to capture their research activities in the next report, which will be launched in 2019. He urged faculty to contribute to the report, to search for collaborators and seek for grants in order to do innovative research. On behalf of the University Council, the Vice-Chancellor commended the dedicated researchers and research administrators whose research endeavors and administrative support respectively made the publication of the maiden edition of the research report possible. The Director of DRIC, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, noted that the launch of the report was a clear demonstration of the credibility of faculty to engage in good research. Prof. Annim used the launch to clear up some misconceptions held by a section of faculty members about the role of DRIC in the University. According to him, DRIC indulges in administrative research, whilst the other research centers in the University engage in scientific research. He, therefore, appealed to faculty to collaborate with the Directorate regarding issues on research, innovation and consultancy, pointing out that DRIC was not established to take over research activities of faculty members. Contrary to popular opinion, the Director stated that the Directorate has Consultancy Policy, Research Agenda and Research Policy guiding the conduct of research in the University. He announced that DRIC had developed a trial researcher database, an online platform that would help colleagues to update themselves, as well as grants and publications. The Deputy Director of DRIC, Prof. Fredrick Ato Armah, gave an overview of the Maiden Research Report, highlighting the total research funds, research domains attracting more funds, areas that require funding attention and, funding agencies by category. A former Director of DRIC, Prof. Albert Abane, who chaired the launch, urged management to motivate researchers in the University to enable them to publish and also to collaborate with distinguished institutions that engage in innovative research. He entreated researchers to make their research findings available to industry players and policy makers to enhance socio-economic development of the country. He called on major stakeholders to support DRIC to achieve its mandate.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has received a Colombian delegation, led by Her Excellency Claudia Turbay Quintero, the Colombian Ambassador to Ghana, at the Council Chamber. The delegation, which included the Vice-Chancellor of the Universidad del Rosario, Prof. Manuel Restrepo, called on the Vice-Chancellor to hold talks on how the two institutions could collaborate in the areas of mobility of staff and students, basic sciences, medicine and law. The rest are clinical practice of history, psychology and research. At the meeting, Prof. Manuel Restrepo used the opportunity to brief the Vice-Chancellor on the history of his university, which is 265 years. For his part, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah thanked the delegation for the visit. He noted that UCC was ready to collaborate with Universidad del Rosario in its areas of academic interest. The Vice-Chancellor used the occasion to run the delegation through the activities of the five colleges in UCC. Prof. Ampiah said the signing of Memorandum of Understanding would enable the two institutions to hit the ground running to achieve mutual academic interest. In another development, the Director of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPC), Dr. Kwesi Aning, has called on the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah. The visit was to seek guidance from the University of Cape Coast on modules writing and content knowledge for the establishment of Distance Education. Other areas are to engage the services of the University to train lecturers and facilitators of KAIPC in Peace Keeping and the review of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two institutions few years ago. Receiving the delegation, the Vice-Chancellor said the University was prepared to give KAIPC the requisite guidance and resource persons in the writing of the modules and content knowledge as regards the Distance Learning Programme. He added that the College of Humanities and Legal Studies has experts in Peace Keeping and will give the necessary training to facilitators and lecturers of KAIPC. The Vice-Chancellor stated that the mission of the visit of KAIPC to the University be incorporated into the existing Memorandum of Understanding.
Dr. Kofi Amegah, a lecturer at the Department of Biological Sciences, has suggested to University Management to reserve some positions for leading researchers in the University.
“Maybe, we can adopt Goodall’s suggestion by reserving some positions for leading researchers in the University so that if you aspire to that position you know what it takes. For instance, we can have two Vice-Deans and two Pro-Vice-Chancellor positions - one for academics and the other for research,” he said.
Dr. Amegah made the suggestion while presenting a paper on the topic: “Research Matters on the Promotion of Academic Staff in University of Cape Coast” at the 3rd Expert Forum organised by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) Branch of UCC. The Expert Forum, a platform for members of the UTAG-UCC to deliberate on major national and local issues, was on theme “Academic Progression and Promotion of Faculty: Standards, Disclosures and Procedures”.
Dr. Amegah appealed to University Management to endeavor to change motivations of faculty members to pursue scholarships through high quality research to enable them to climb the academic progression ladder. He touched on some challenging issues that were militating against the conduct of quality research in the University such as lack of transparency, prolonged assessment process, competition for management positions and the scary of publication fees charged by good quality journals. He, however, said provision of assessors comments to clear up lingering doubts, measures to curb undue delays from assessors and provision of incentives to attract research funds were remedies to these challenges.
On the issue of single or sole authorship, he said it should be discipline specific and not based on whole sale promotion in the University. Dr. Amegah said: “Promoting sole-authorship, we should demand that a proportion of the papers we submit for promotion are first author and corresponding author publications.”
Touching on the issue of increasing the numbers of research papers submitted for promotion, he called on the University to be guided by quality as the benchmark for academic promotion in the University, and not to focus on quantity in research where assessors would fail colleagues who present such papers. On accelerated promotion, the Lecturer opined that prospective research applicants should exude high level of excellence in research and be given the opportunity to provide “a written justification as to why accelerated promotion is being sought to enable an assessment of applicants motives.”
Speaking on the topic: “Outreach Matters on the Promotion of Academic Staff in UCC”, a lecturer at the School of Medical Sciences, Prof. Ivy Ekem, described outreach as “Engaging the university and community in defining mutual concerns and together exploring ways to address them.” According to her, areas of outreach include technical assistance and technology transfer, policy analysis, organizational and community development, assistance in programme development and evaluation; professional development and service-learning activities. She asked faculty to assess outreach through documentation which was necessary for appropriate recognition and reward.
Commenting on how outreach should be done, Prof. Ekem advised both administrators and individual faculty members to be specific and clear about the commitments of faculty members to professional outreach or service. She said weighting of outreach for promotion should be based on the relevance of activities to the local community, before national and international relevance.
She appealed to the Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance to assist in developing instruments for assessing the process, the project and the project impact. The University, according to her, should make faculty expertise more widely and rapidly available to the society.
The Director of Centre for Teaching Support, Prof. Douglas D. Agyei, who spoke on “Teaching Matters on the Promotion of Academic Staff in UCC”, said the effective implementation of the criterion for considering teaching for promotion as stated in the 2012 Statues has been a great challenge. According to him, the common practice in the processing of promotions for faculty, over the years, was applicants submitting appraisal reports of their teaching by their students.
He argued that the move “has not been sufficient because such reports have not formed integral part of the final assessment in determining the ultimate decision of whether an applicant should be promoted or not”. To that end, he suggested the provision of clear indicators and guidance that would ensure a fair, transparent and equitable method of assessment for Faculty teaching, as well as setting out the criteria against which faculty promotion to different ranks in the University would be assessed.
In his view, the use of students’ appraisal or evaluation report, evidence of professional development through workshops or training programmes attended and the evidence of observed teaching should be used for assessing faculty teaching in the University.
Speaking on “Missing Matters and Procedural Issues on the Promotion of Academic Staff in UCC”, a former Director of the Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance, Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare, underscored the need for a clear cut documentation on teaching, research and outreach in the University. That, he said, would help faculty to be abreast of the procedural issues on promotion in the University.
The Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. Livingstone K. Sam-Amoah, has observed that any country that depends on agricultural production as basis for industrial development is most likely to fail if irrigation is not part of the development plan.
“Indeed in some parts of the world, irrigation remains the dividing line between abundant food and no food at all. Irrigated agriculture represents 20 percent of the total cultivated land, but contributes 40 percent of the total produced worldwide,” he noted.
Prof. Sam-Amoah made these observations when he delivered his inaugural lecture on the topic “Ensuring Food Security: Damming the Waters or Damning our Future?” at the School of Medical Sciences Auditorium.
He was worried that Sub-Saharan Africa was the region with the lowest portion of the cultivated area with irrigation adding that “just over three percent against almost 21 percent at the global level”. This point to the fact the region had the highest prevalence of undernourishment thus 25 percent in in 2011-2013 against 12 percent at the global level, he explained.
The professor of Soil and Water Engineering said the declaration of 2014 as the “Year of Agriculture” was a demonstration of a continued recognition of the importance of agriculture, not only in the context of food security but also as a primary driver of economic development. He said it had been argued that Africa could only feed itself in a generation and emphasised the fact that there were three main opportunities that could help make the vision a reality. He said these included “Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering – including improvements in infrastructure; better efforts at capacity building through higher technical training and the emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent’s economic improvements.
Giving some statistics to explain the benefits of irrigation, Prof. Sam-Amoah said irrigated agriculture was a key contributor to food security, producing 40% of food and agricultural commodities on 17% of agricultural land. He said that in Burkina Faso, irrigated agriculture continued to contribute significantly to food security noting that “irrigation produced in 2010 around 10 percent of the total agricultural production for only 1 percent of the cultivated area”.
According to him, China was the country with the largest area equipped for irrigation, thus 69.4 million hectors, immediately followed by India with 66.7 million ha. “Outside the Asian continent, the countries with the largest irrigation areas are: the United States of America in the Americas with 26.4 million ha, Italy in Europe with 3.95 million ha, Egypt in Africa with 3.65 million ha and Australia in Oceania with 2.55 million ha,” he explained
In Ghana, he noted that “despite considerable potential for development and the emphasis placed on irrigation development in many plans, less than two percent of the total cultivable area in the country was irrigated. He further indicated that the performance and productivity of existing irrigated schemes, particularly those that were publicly developed were generally low.
“In irrigation, we are interested in constructing dams over bodies of water and rivers i.e. damming the waters, and storing the water so that it can be delivered through the irrigation system for meeting the water requirements, then we will be risking our future, i. e. damning our future!” Prof. Sam-Amoah pointed out. He also noted that if “we continue to rely on rainfall as our main source of meeting the crop water requirements, then we will be risking our future, i.e. damning our future!”
The UCC Faculty of Law placed second in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court qualifying Competition held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) recently.
UCC was also adjudged the best in oral presentation and research documents for the competition.
Law Faculties that participated in the competition were Kwame Nkrumah University of Science (KNUST) which placed first; University of Cape Coast, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). Others were Central University College, University of Professional Studies and Kings University College
UCC Faculty of Law was represented by Celestina Tawiah, Michael Kwatekwei Quartey, Solomon Okorley and Fafa Delight Agbeko.
Presenting their prize to the Vice-Chancellor, the Vice-Dean of UCC Faculty of Law, Mr. Kwame Owusu Agyemang, said the final competition was fiercely competed between UCC and KNUST with Her Ladyship Gertrude Torkornoo, Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah Oppong and Captain Kamal Deen Ali as the judges. He indicated that as part of their prizes, UCC and KNUST would compete in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court to be held from 1st to 7th April, 2018 in Washington DC, United States of America.
The Dean of the Faculty of Law, Mr. Kujo E. McDave, appealed to the Vice-Chancellor for financial support to sponsor the contestants for the competition in Washington DC.
On his part, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, commended the contestants for making the University proud. “Though the Faculty of Law came to the scene not long ago but you have made UCC visible through various competitions and the Ghana Law entrance examinations” He also congratulated the lecturers in the Faculty for the quality training they were offering to the students. He assured them of the University management’s support.
The University Community and the general public are invited to an Inaugural Lecture to be delivered by Prof. L. K. Sam-Amoah on the topic "Ensuring Food Security: Damming the Waters or Damning our Future"
Date: Thursday, 22nd February, 2018
Time: 3:00pm
Venue: School of Medical Sciences Auditorium
Chairman: Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah (Vice-Chancellor)
The Head of Institutional Affiliation (IAO), Mr. Justice Agyenim Boateng, has underscored UCC’s commitment to assist its affiliate institutions to offer quality academic services.
He noted that in order to ensure quality service delivery, management of UCC through the Institutional Affiliation and Centre for Teaching Support (CTS) has organised a training programme for all UCC affiliate institutions.
Mr. Boateng was speaking at the opening ceremony of a four-day workshop for lecturers of College of Health, Yamfo (CHY) in the Brong Ahafo Region. Also participating in the workshop were two lecturers from S S Peter and Paul Pastoral and Social Institute, Wa (SSPPPSI). He called for the active participation of the lecturers adding that “You will need to be abreast of these current trends as an academic to be able to make an impact in your students”
The Director of CHY, Mr. Evans K. Danso expressed gratitude to UCC for the numerous assistance to the College since the inception of the institution three years ago. “We appreciate what UCC is doing for this young College to become a formidable institution in this country,” he added. He was optimistic that the training would help the lecturers to build on their competence in terms of adopting best practices in their teaching, assessment and research work.
The Representative of the Director of CTS, Dr. Isaac Buabeng, said the workshop was intended to help streamline moderation activities in affiliate institutions adding that “a similar workshop has been held for lecturers of UCC so that there will be collective understanding between moderators and lecturers or tutors from affiliate institutions during moderation exercises.” Other resource persons for the workshop were Dr. Christopher Y. Kwaah and Dr. Kofi Acheaw Owusu.
Like the previous workshops, lecturers of CHY and SSPPPSI were taken through “Types of Assessment and Assessment Criteria (Feedback Mechanisms)”, “Learning Outcomes/Blooms Taxonomy of Cognitive Learning”, “Table of Specification”. Others included “Types of Multiple Test Items”; “Essay Type Questions”; “Preparation of Course Outline” and “Effective Project Work Supervision.
In a related development, Mr. Boateng interacted with first year students of the College and advised them to be serious with their studies and other practical sessions of their academic programme. He urged the students to be motivated by the fact that the College started as a degree awarding institution. He noted that most of the Ministry of Health training institutions run diploma or certificate programmes but students of this College were privileged to pursue a four-year degree programmes.
Prof. Denis Worlanyo Aheto, the Director of the Centre for Coastal Management of the University of Cape Coast has been invited by USAID/Ghana Mission Director Ms. Sharon Cromer, on behalf of the US Government to serve as a member of the Advisory Group to guide the planning and follow up for the U.S Government’s led Global Food Security Strategy for Ghana. A key part of the assignment relates to his involvement in critical stakeholder engagements or events including workshops to advance the United States and Ghana Governments’ shared goals to sustainably reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition in Ghana. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, in a letter to congratulate Prof Aheto noted “I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment to the US Government Advisory Group. It deserved considering the fact that you have involved in the fisheries project and have contributed immensely to its success so far. This is indeed a recognition of your efforts. By extension, it shows there is something good happening in UCC and that we need to be involved in the development of our country and contribute our quota in our own small way” In his congratulatory remarks, the Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. Livingstone Sam-Amoah expressed his delight at the news. “On behalf of CANS and on my own behalf, I congratulate you on this achievement. We hope you'll bring your vast experience and admirable sense of dedication to work to the Advisory Committee's work as it plans to tackle the challenges of food insecurity in Ghana is developed”.
It is announced for the information of the University Community and the general public that application deadline for Ghanaian applicants for the International Summer School on CONSTRUCTING RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS ON THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN AFRICA'S POLICY ENVIRONMENT has been extended to 20th February, 2018 (12:00pm GMT+1)
The Conference will be held from 2-14 April 2018 at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Please note that the new deadline applies to:
- Doctoral candidates with a social science background enrolled at Ghanaian universities
- Postdocs with a social science background at Ghanaian universities, who have completed a doctoral programme within the last 5 years
For more information regarding the summer school as well as the application process please consult the Call for Applications in attachment.