President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has advised the 54 newly-qualified doctors of the University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences (UCCSMS) to be guided and guarded by the Hippocratic Oath they have sworn in the discharge of their medical duties. '’Let your Hippocratic Oath be your guide and guard in the discharge of your duties," he said, while congratulating them on behalf of the government and people of Ghana. The President reminded the new doctors that "UCC has equipped you with first class training and you are ready to take on the world by serving your society and humanity through the skills you have acquired. " President Akufo-Addo, speaking at the 50th Congregation and 5th Oath Swearing and Induction ceremony of the University, expressed disquiet about Ghana's doctor population ratio of one doctor to 8000 patients, bemoaning the fact that it was " woefully inadequate and unacceptable." Consequently, he called for the immediate arrest of the situation, which according to him, was even more lopsided in the rural and deprived communities. President Akufo-Addo praised UCCSMS for the introduction of the Community-Based Experience and Service mode in its curriculum to whip up the interest of students in community healthcare. He was of the hope that such programmes "will position the students to play good advocacy role as healthcare providers within the communities they are working after their studies". President Akufo-Addo said government was obliged to support UCCSMS to train more doctors to improve the quality of medical practice in the country. "We have a duty to ensure that this School [SMS] is well equipped to produce doctors with all the skills needed to improve the quality of medical practice in our country," he stated. For his part, the Chancellor, Sir Sam Jonah, appealed to the government to complete physical infrastructure at the SMS to enable the School to train more medical doctors in the country. The Chancellor passionately appealed to the government to review its directive to public universities to contribute 34℅ of their internally generated funds to the Consolidated Fund, describing the move as "discouraging and can stifle creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship". He requested government to take a second look at the issue of retirement age for faculty members, which was pegged at 60, pointing out that at age 60, Senior Members of faculty would had attained intellectual maturity and were able to mentor young members of faculty to provide guidance and supervision for research and teaching. Sir Sam Jonah reminded the new doctors of the many challenges at the health sector and asked them to be innovative and to think outside the box to surmount the challenges. He advised them to be guided by the motto of UCC- Veritas Nobis Lumen (Truth our Guide) and be good ambassadors of the university in all their endeavors. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, singled out the Founding Dean of the SMS, Rev. Harold Amonoo- Kuofi, for the remarkable role he played in the establishment of the UCCSMS and his unique leadership style of transforming the School. He equally expressed warmest appreciation to faculty and staff of the School for the knowledge and virtues they had impacted to the young doctors. Prof. Ampiah congratulated the graduands and thanked their parents and guardians who facilitated the studies of the young medical doctors up to the current height they have attained. The Vice-Chancellor implored the doctors to have passion for their work and keep researching and updating their professional knowledge. He charged the young doctors to “go out there and touch lives and when you meet challenging times, remember the training you have gone through and the things you have learnt and make a difference". The Valedictorian, Dr. Marcia Afriyie Agyemang, on behalf of the graduating class, pledged to work to enhance the health service delivery of the nation. Dr. Peter Lawer Apokyi was adjudged the graduating doctor, sweeping 8 of the 25 awards at stake.  

The Registrar of the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Elvis Atikpui, has hailed the University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences (UCCSMS) as one of the best medical schools in Ghana. “Per the statistics”, he confirmed, “UCC SMS is becoming the best medical school in Ghana. Not only in terms of academic programmes, but also in terms of conduct” Dr. Atikpui made these statements during the 8th SMS White Coat Ceremony to mark the transition of 65 level 400 medical students from the study of the basic sciences to clinical training. The event, which witnessed a formal robbing of the students in the doctor’s white coat, was also to officially induct them into the medical profession as student doctors. The Registrar congratulated the students on their successful completion on the preclinical programme and advised them to take the clinical training seriously. He entreated them to embrace the values of the profession, which includes respect, dressing, compassionate, humility and tolerance. Dr. Atikpui, however, cautioned them against acts which would bring the enviable image of the profession into dispute. He charged them to explore the social, religious and cultural circumstances of their patients during their interactions with them at the ward so as to get useful information concerning the medical conditions of their patients. “I wish to remind you that the patients are a whole horde of information. They are the new text book for practice. That is where all the answers are,” said Dr. Atikpui, who led the students to administer the medical student’s oath. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, charged them to commit themselves to excellence and to let the health of their patients be of paramount concern to them. He admonished them not to abuse the privileges in the noble profession and challenged them to demonstrate high sense of compassion, honesty, and tolerance in the discharge of their medical duties. The Dean of SMS, Prof. Francis Ofei, urged them to respect the rules and regulations governing the university in order not to fall foul of them during their clinical training. He advised them to use the knowledge they had acquired to serve humanity and to ensure that they lived up to the words contained in the medical student’s oath. The Central Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Samuel Quarshie, who chaired the ceremony, implored the students to make good use of the rich experience of other health workers at the ward and to seek their counsel when the need arose.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, has received two officials from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, at his office. The two officials were Prof Keith Spriggs of the School of Pharmacy and Mrs. Emma Tayou, the West Africa representative of UoN. The two officials were also accompanied by Mr. Patrick Ayande, a staff member of UCC and a PhD candidate at UoN. Welcoming the officials, Prof. Oduro expressed the gratitude to the officials on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and management of the University. He thanked them for showing interest to collaborate with the University. He indicated that UCC was exploring avenues for collaboration with world class universities that would provide benchmark for the University as part of its internationalisation agenda. He was optimistic that once the two institutions sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the relationship would be enhanced to create more opportunities for the two parties. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor mentioned the challenges confronting the UCC as far as lecturer to student ratio was concerned, stating that “by the norms we should have one lecturer to 25 students for the humanities and one lecturer to 20 students for the sciences but in practice we have about one lecturer to 200 students on the average and in some cases 400”. He, therefore, called on the officials to assist UCC to train more lecturers to acquire PhD through scholarships or at an affordable cost. The Provost of the College of Health and Allied Sciences, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, who was at meeting, said there had been a discussion between the College and UoN officials about the possibility of designing split site PhD programmes for lecturers without terminal degrees. He also indicated that they had booked an appointment with the Minister for Education adding that “we want him to help UCC to secure scholarship from the Ghana Education Trust Fund for UCC staff”. He noted that the two officials had agreed to assist the College to run the Pharmacy programme to be introduced in the 2017/2018 academic year. On his part, Prof. Spriggs said the UoN aimed at collaborating with UCC in mutual beneficial relationship, especially in the areas of research and training. He assured the Pro-Vice-Chancellor that UoN would support UCC to train lecturers. In the area of research, he said the two partners could be exploiting complementary skills and expertise. He also mentioned staff/student exchanges, summer schools, sharing teaching strategies and materials were some of the opportunities that would be created through the collaboration. He further indicated UoN was interested in joint research “in neglected tropical diseases, antimicrobial resistance, seed/crop protection”.  

The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has taken steps to collaborate with the University of Nottingham (UoN) in the areas of staff and student exchanges. As part of arrangements to kick start the partnership, two officials from UoN have paid a two- day working visit to the UCC to interact with management and faculty in the College of Health and Allied Sciences. The two officials were an Associate Professor in Gene Regulation, Dr. Keith Spriggs from the School of Pharmacy and Mrs. Emma Tayou the West Africa representative of UoN. They were accompanied by Mr. Patrick Ayande, a staff member of UCC and a PhD candidate, who is spearheading the collaboration between the two institutions. Interacting with faculty from the College of Health and Allied Sciences, the Provost, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, expressed profound gratitude for the interest of UoN to collaborate with UCC. He said the College was putting in place the necessary preparations to introduce Pharmacy programme in the 2018/2019 academic year. He called for the support of the officials, adding “we will need you to make input and also offer us direction since UoN School of Pharmacy is one of the best in the world”. Prof. Boampong made a presentation of the course component and credit hours for the Doctor of Pharmacy (D. Pharm) programme to the officials and indicated that UCC had already entered into an agreement with some Universities in the USA, namely: the University of Rhode Island (URI), University of Cincinnati and the University of Akron. He said the College would also be grateful if the UoN could help upgrade lecturers with split site PhD programmes. That, he noted, would help most of the lecturers to acquire PhD degrees in fulfilment of the standards set by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE). He also spoke about joint conferences and research between the two institutions. Responding, Prof. Spriggs assured the Provost that the UoN was willing to establish partnership with UCC and indicated that the visit was to explore the areas the two institutions could collaborate. He said UoN had a lot of programmes in the Sciences which faculty without PhD could pursue through scholarships. On her part, Madam Tayou explained funding opportunities which faculty in UCC could apply to help them pursue various programmes at UoN. She said UoN was ever ready to collaborate with UCC in many ways to advance academic work in both institutions. Mr. Ayande said there were numerous opportunities if UCC showed commitment in the collaboration,stressing that there were many institutions in the UK that would fund joint research projects with Universities from developing nations. He expressed excitement about UCC’s effort to collaborate with renowned Universities to help young faculty to acquire PhD degrees. The Provost later led the officials to visit facilities of the College and also interacted with the Director of Pharmacy at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. Prof. Spriggs and Emma also delivered a lecture on the prospects of the collaboration between UCC and UoN as well as funding opportunities for lecturers to pursue PhD programmes.