The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has congratulated sports men, women and officials of the University of Cape Coast Sports Team on winning the 25th Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) Games held at Tamale. The Vice- Chancellor, therefore, promised that the gallant men and women would be rewarded appropriately for projecting the image of the University through sports. “ I must say that I am very proud of you. We will find a way of rewarding you accordingly. I think UCC we have gotten to a certain stage. where we got to reward people  for certain things that they do. And we will think about how we will reward you.  We will find a way of showing appreciation to these gallant men and women not only in words but in kind. Thank you very much for making UCC very proud,” he said. Prof.  Ampiah made these remarks when the Sports Team called on him at the Council Chamber to present to him the overall trophy won at the  GUSA Games and another  won during the GUSA Cross-Country competition held at Tarkwa. Last month (January), the Sports Team won a total of 38 gold, 25 silver and 14 bronze medals to emerge champions of the 25th GUSA Games organised for public universities. By this feat, UCC has won  the competition four consecutive times and will therefore  keep the trophy, which is permissible under the rules governing GUSA Games. He said the remarkable performance of the sports Team was an indication that UCC was not only good in academics, but also a giant force to reckon with in sports. “We are both good in the academic and sports areas”, said the Vice- Chancellor. He encouraged the gallant sports men and women to also take their studies seriously to justify their competences in both in academics and sports. Prof.  Ampiah further announced the restoration of Tuesday afternoon  periods for sporting activities in the University to enable students to participate in sports. “We should make the Tuesday afternoon free again so that sports men and women will have the benefit to practice.” Prof. Ampiah stated, admitting that  “Sports is one of the most important endeavours in the University”. The Chairman of Sports and Recreation Committee, Dr. Charles Domfeh, thanked the Vice-Chancellor for the warm reception. He noted that the success of the Team was achieved on the principle of team work, discipline, perseverance, winning spirit, hard work and commitment on the part of both officials and athletes. Dr. Domfeh, who led the sports delegation, expressed appreciation to the Vice-Chancellor and management for their immense support to the Team and also restoring  Tuesday afternoon  for sporting activities in the University. The move, he said, would go a long way to nurture talents for the University to win more laurels in every competition. The delegation included the Vice-Dean of Students Affairs, Dr. Eugene Darteh; the Head of  Sports Section, Dr. Daniel Apaak; the SRC President, Mr. Henry Tony Arthur, and some members at the Sports Section. The Registrar, Mr. J.K. Nyan; the Acting Director of  the Directorate of Public Affairs, Major (rtd) Kofi Baah-Bentum, were present at the meeting.  

The Vice- Provost of the University of Cincinnati (UC), United States of America (USA), Prof. Raj Mehta, has reaffirmed the commitment of his University to strengthen academic ties with the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

He said the University of Cincinnati, which is 200 years old, would partner UCC in the areas of joint research, proposals and, exchange of lecturers and students programmes.

Prof. Mehta was speaking during a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, as part of a day’s reciprocal visit to the University.

In 2017, a delegation from UCC visited the University of Cincinnati to acquaint themselves with the academic programmes of UC, which included Pharmacy.

Prof. Mehta assured the Vice-Chancellor that his University would help the College of Health and Allied Sciences to develop Pharmacy programme to enable the College to train more students to help improve the health sector of the country.

For his part, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah expressed gratitude to Prof. Raj Mehta and his accompanying delegation for the visit.

He added that the University cherished the collaboration with the University of Cincinnati and hoped that the partnership would in the long run benefit the two institutions.

The Registrar, Mr. J.K. Nyan; the Provost of the College of Health and Allied Sciences, Prof. Johnson Boampong; the Dean of the Center for International Education (CIE), Prof. Rosemond Boohene; and the Junior Assistant Registrar at CIE, Mr. Alfred Ghartey, were present during the meeting.

Fresh students of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Nursing School at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, have been urged to stand out as specialised nurses with the requisite knowledge and skills to contribute towards enhancing quality health care delivery in the country.

The Head of Institutional Affiliation Office (IAO), Mr. Justice Agyenim Boateng, gave the advice when he addressed fresh students at an orientation programme at the School. He noted that they would be expected to exhibit high level of professionalism in their duties to justify the training they had received. “Your superiors will not pardon you if you disappoint them after your two year training as specialist in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)” he admonished.

Mr. Boateng said that the Ministry of Health granted them study leave to pursue the top-up degree in ENT in order to contribute towards the provision of quality healthcare. He reminded them that the degree they would receive at the end of their training qualified them to work at the level of management in most of the health facilities in Ghana, and therefore, they should be adequately prepared to meet expectations at that level.

On academics, Mr. Boateng told the students that at the end of their studies, they would be awarded a UCC certificate because of ENT Nursing School’s relationship as an affiliate of UCC. “UCC stands for quality, so you are supposed to study well before being awarded UCC certificate,” he cautioned.

The Principal of the ENT Nursing School, Alhaji Abdul Rahaman Shaban, entreated the fresh students to be time conscious, disciplined, study well, attend lectures and practical sessions to enable them graduate with pride as specialists. He expressed gratitude to UCC especially, IAO for providing good mentorship to the School.

Mr. Boateng and Alhaji Shaban later visited some of the lecture rooms where final year students of the School were writing a quiz.

The ENT Nursing School, Kumasi, is a specialised nursing school established by the Ministry of Health in 2002. The School, one of the most esteemed Post Basic Nursing Training Institution is among a few in West Africa that runs a top-up degree programme awarded by UCC.

The Project Manager of the USAID/UCC Fisheries and Coastal Management Capacity Building Support Project, Prof. Denis W. Aheto, has said fish is the most widely traded agricultural commodity in the world as compared to other products in the agricultural value chain. “It is extremely important to put on record that fish, over the last couple of years, is the most heavily traded agricultural commodity compared to meat sources, tobacco, tea, cocoa, banana, sugar, among others”, he said.  The Project Manager, said funding from Overseas Development Aid (ODAs) for  fisheries research and productivity in fisheries value chain had declined over the last five years (2010 - 2015) and needed to be improved to complement the increasing funding support for other agricultural local outputs. . Prof. Aheto was addressing a delegation from USAID-Ghana, led by its new Mission Director, Ms.Sharon Cromer, at a workshop as part of her day’s visit to see at first-hand the progress of the Project in the University. Over the last five years, he said, funding for fisheries had declined by 30 % in favour of agricultural food products and forestry.  He continued: “Over the same period, funding volumes have seen a dramatic declined when it comes to fishery research, in particular”. Touching on the Fisheries sector in Ghana, Prof. Aheto said the total fish production of the country was about 400,000 metric tones and added that it was highly inadequate, compelling the government to import fish into the country. He revealed that in 2010, fish import reached 108 million Dollars, thus making it difficult for the country to achieve stability in its foreign income reserve. He added that “fish provides 60% of Ghana’s animal protein requirements and also contributes 4.5 % to GDP”. The Project Manager, who is also the Director of the Center for Coastal Management, UCC, enumerated over exploitation of fish resources, large scale poaching by foreign vessels, large amount of foreign exchange required to import fish to supplement domestic production as some of the challenges facing the fishery sector. On USAID’S Technical and Financial Assistance to the Project in UCC, Prof. Aheto said USAID/Ghana had committed 5.5 million Dollars to the project, with the University contributing 1.8 million Dollars in kind, namely: time, space, electricity, water, material resources, among others. He catalogued some of the difficulties the Centre for Coastal Management (CCT) was facing within and outside the University, including slow pace of physical works, sourcing and procurement, understaffing, depreciation of the cedi and bureaucratic system in boat registration.   He took the participants through an online platform meant to provide scientific information to support policy making in the fishing sector, FishCom Ghana , and some capacity building programmes the CCM had undertaken for the public, including security agencies, journalists, academia, students, government officials, among others. Making a contribution, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kobina Yankson, called for support for government’s policy of building a Ghana beyond Aid. “So as a nation our goal is to be developing to the point that we will be on our own” adding that, “Our president calling on us to develop beyond aid is a good call”.  He called for strong consideration of capacity building elements in foreign aid which as a consequence would build the human resource base so as to move local projects beyond aid.