Panelists at a Roundtable discussion have unanimously posited that the Arts have huge part to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG). The roundtable, which was organised under the SDG –Graduate School, has three main collaborators in University of Cape Coast, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and University of Heldsheim, Germany. Under the collaboration, 12 PHD students and 6 masters students will be trained in the first instance. The theme for the discussion was “The Role of the Arts in Sustainable Development” and had panelists drawn from both academia and industry. It was held to find the possible contribution that the Arts could make towards the achievement of the SDGs. In his presentation, Prof. Victor Yankah of the Department of Film and Theatre Studies, UCC, indicated that the Arts has since both pre and post independence era been used to educate the masses on patriotism and nation building. He said Kwame Nkrumah for instance had the belief that drama and songs could be used to create awareness in what it meant to be the new Ghanaian after independence. He wondered whether it was not possible to revisit the period of mobile cinema concept in the light of the apparent devastation of the country’s forest resources through illegal mining (galamsey). Prof. Yankah said, “When we do that our future generations will be disinherited. One day we will have to show pictures to our children to say this is how a forest looks like or direct them to Nageo world”. He said, for example, in Burkina Faso the Arts was used to educate farmers on how to do an all year round planting and said a similar effort could be made to tackle the devastation of the environment. He bemoaned the practice where funding was mostly given to the Sciences to the detriment of the Arts. “Unfortunately, for the Arts funding eludes us, the Sciences are often given funding for research because of the contention that they rather contribute more to the SDGs”. “This is even more in our institutions where they give more funding to sciences than the Arts. We always misconstrue the role of the Arts”. Contributing, Prof. Brigit Mandel of the University of Hildesheim, said the word sustainability originated from forest economy and therefore, we can experience the entire spectrum of human diversity and emotions through the Arts. “The Arts can show different perspective of the world, in Germany for example we use the Arts to preserve our Heritage”, she added. The Vice-President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, Mr. Bessa Simons called for the reintroduction of Music as an examinable subject in basic schools to whip up interests in the youth. Mr. Bessa Simons advocated for the collection of comprehensive data to convince policy makers on what the Arts could offer with respect to the SDGs. “We have to get data and research that will support what we are saying and again, the decision makers when they see our data, what we have gathered they will believe us more,” he added. Mr. Simmons said he has taken it upon himself to showcase what the Afro-Rock Band, Osibisa, did it all over the world by going around tertiary institutions in the country to hold workshop on their works. He said the group was dedicated to their culture and therefore made it to the top. Mr. Bessa Simons said he did not think after the discussions, things should remain as they were and therefore, suggested the setting up of a committee of both academia and industry players to shift the agenda forward. He pledged the support of the Musicians Union to any such committee in their work. The Executive Director of the National Theatre, Mrs. Amy Frimpong-Appiah, said it would be beneficial to look at areas in the SDGs where the Arts could fit in and find effective ways of meeting those targets. “We have to look at strategic partnerships that will help us make a mark, how can we use the Arts related work to make it beneficial to all of us. We just need to look at those areas to fulfill our part of the goals”, she asked. She said people in the Arts have sat back for too long a time in talking about what could be achieved through the area. Due to this she said, people who work outside the Arts see those in it to be living on a different planet. “The way we think does not seem to connect with anybody in the world. So we need to develop those relationships and educate them on the importance of the Arts”, she stressed. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro, who also spoke at the programme, said the University was committed to the partnership and called for the cooperation of all stakeholders. “Knowledge is like a Baobab tree, no one person can embrace it. So even as we think about promoting the Arts and using Arts to promote SDGs, we need the cooperation of all. We need disciplines to come together and also understand how to bring cultures together, and this is why we in UCC think this partnership should be supported”, he said. By Imensah

The Directorate of University Health Services (DUHS) and the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) have agreed to collaborate to improve health care delivery in the University. Under the agreement, House Officers from SMS will undertake housemanship at the University Hospital. Also clinical students from the SMS will use the facility for their training. Again, specialists and Medical consultants from SMS will render medical services to the University Hospital to improve healthcare delivery and expand the services of the Hospital. This came to light when a delegation from the Directorate of University Health Services (DUHS) and SMS met with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, to inform him of the collaboration between the two parties. The delegation from the SMS included the Provost of the College of Health and Allied Sciences (CoHAS), Prof. Harold Amonoo-Kuofi and the Dean of SMS, Prof. Francis Ofei, while the DUHS delegation comprised the Director, Dr. Evans Ekanem and the Administrator, Mr. Samuel Atta-Yeboah. Briefing the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ofei said since the assumption of the current Director of DUHS, the two sides have been discussing means of improving healthcare delivery in the University. However, he added that provisions in both the 2012 and 2016 revised Statutes did not permit them to collaborate, adding that “no member of SMS is serving as a member on the University Hospital Committee and vice-versa.” The Director of the DUHS, Dr. Evans Ekanem, said his outfit would do its best to ensure the sustainability of the collaboration. He noted that authorities at the University Hospital had embarked on sensitisation exercise to disabuse the minds of staff of the Hospital that the collaboration between SMS and DUHS would pave way for SMS to usurp their functions. He said the Hospital would now serve as a training facility for medical students and also help the Hospital to meet the requirements for accreditation by both the Ghana Medical and Dental Council, and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Responding, the Vice-Chancellor commended both SMS and DUHS for initiating the collaboration which would improve healthcare delivery in the University. He urged them to ensure that the issue of remuneration of medical consultants and specialists were ironed out before the implementation of the collaboration. He called on the delegation from CoHAS to brainstorm on how to generate funds to procure equipment for the building at the Diagnostic Centre. Prof. Ampiah asked them to consider Public Private Partnership (PPP) both from within and outside and added that some units in the University could even avail themselves to partner the College to complete the facility.

“As management, we are set on a mission to make UCC synonymous with higher quality graduate education in the country and beyond”. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah stated this during the 12th Session of the 49th Congregation for the School of Graduate Studies. A total of 2,214 students were presented with various postgraduate degrees, which included 51 Ph.Ds. Addressing the graduands, the Chancellor of UCC, Sir Dr. Sam Esson Jonah said the School of Graduate Studies continues to enhance the intellectual life of the University by enabling graduate professional students to undertake scholarly study and advanced research and to prepare them for professional work. “It is my conviction that the School of Graduate Studies will continue to foster a conducive environment that enables critical, curious, creative, and courageous thinkers, who work both independently and collaboratively, to find answers to significant development challenges confronting the nation.” Dr. Jonah called on the School to be guided by the core values of integrity, dependability, creativity, and innovation and work even harder to position graduate education more centrally and visibly within the University. The Chancellor said, for tertiary institutions to successfully fulfill their functions in the 21st century, they needed to respond effectively to changing needs and trends in education as well as changing information and communication technologies. He told the graduands that more innovative ways of doing business were emerging, and therefore, they should endeavour to be among the “21st century think tanks who engineer such progress”. He reminded them that the University has empowered them with generic and discipline-specific research knowledge and skills, employment-related skills and competencies and were expected to impart positively on their respective communities. “I would also like to recommend that you consider the agriculture sector as you think of establishing yourselves. It is one area Ghanaians have failed to invest into on full scale”, Dr. Jonah emphasised. Presenting his address, the Vice-Chancellor said the school has over the years and in 2015/16 in particular, sought to ensure relevance of graduate programmes to socio-economic and technology development in Ghana and the West African sub-region. “Improved graduate programmes and policies as well as facilities for more effective teaching, research and community engagement have been our stock-in-trade to transform significantly our knowledge base, curricula and mode of delivery”, he stated. The Vice-Chancellor reported that enrollment saw a slight expansion and included students from the sub-region adding “A curious feature of the total enrollment was a shift in numbers from our regular mode to sandwich and distance modes. This signal the need to reposition ourselves as a University to meet the shift in demand for graduate education”. Prof. Ampiah said the impressive statistics of postgraduates presented, reflected hard work and diligence on the part of faculty, students and supporting staff. He announced that work was progressing sturdily on the construction of the new School of Graduate Studies Building and indicated that it would solve the problem of inadequate office space for staff and also provide the needed environment for graduate students upon its completion. The ceremony also witnessed the presentation of awards to deserving graduands and their supervisors. Among the graduates who received award for outstanding research were Dr. Jerry Opoku-Ansah-Ph.D (Physics), Prof. Eric Mensah-Ph.D (Curriculum and Teaching), Dr. Sebastian Eliason-Ph. D (Population and Health) and Dr. Emmanuel Kwasi Abu-Ph. D (Parasitology). The following supervisors; Prof. Joseph K. Mintah, Rev. Prof. Seth Asare-Danso, Prof. Akwasi Kumi-Kyereme and Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare were honoured. Others were Prof. Moses Jojo Eghan, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong and Dr. Irene Ayi. Two hardworking staff of the School of Graduate Studies, Mrs. Gifty Dzansi and Mr. Kwesi Anhwere were also honoured at the ceremony. Click to download the Congregation Brochure

A visiting Professor at the Department of Educational Foundations, Prof. Joshua Adebisi Omotosho, has called on teachers to use songs as part of their pedagogy. According to him, songs have unique qualities which make content stick in the brain more than other form of delivery and therefore asked for the conversion of critical areas of learning into songs for easy recollection. Using himself as an example, he said he tried to unravel the mystery behind why songs, learned more than 55 years ago, were still vividly remembered with relative ease. Consequently, he sang and danced to songs (in Twi) he learnt about five-and-a-half decades ago to illustrate this point. The visiting don was speaking at an Occasional Lecture at the SMS Auditorium on the theme “That Songs are the Most Enduring Memoirs of My Childhood has Implications for Counselling, Research and Some Feeding Habits.” Professor Omototsho,who left Ghana in his youthful days in December 1961 to Nigeria and resurfaced in Ghana in 1996, effortlessly sang some of the songs he learnt at Apinamang in the Eastern Region during his elementary school days, which included “Teacher pon yɛn tɛn”, “Anoma ketewa”, “Apinamang mmofra”, “influenza yɛ yadeɛ bone”, “Yesu medefo”, amongst others. The Guidance and Counselling Professor also did a rendition of the seven steps in counselling, which he has personally composed, and urged counsellors to employ such methods in the discharge of their duties. He commended Ghanaians for their commitment to fight the destruction of the environment and water bodies as a result of the devasting effects of illegal mining (popularly known as “galamsey”). The visiting lecturer said the pollution of rivers in Ghana had affected the quality of the rivers, including River Subrane, which according to him was the cleanest river in Ghana in the 60s. He commended Ghana for its academic promotion methods, dissemination of information through Public Address System, healthy national debates, speed ramps and the cost-effective traditional mourning clothes. He suggested to the University to embark upon an interdisciplinary research into “Asoa”, a local fruit, adding that “Asoa” has good medicinal benefits. Professor Omototsho advised Ghanaians to stay away from starchy foods, food enhancers, fast foods and urged them to eat healthy foods like cocoyam and plantain. In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said the occasional lecture series was open to all faculty members to share their experiences with their colleagues in the University. He said through pedagogy and learning, “we can use songs to remember things and put them in our long term memory and it will be there forever.” He said most of the times when we learn and put them in our short term memory, it vanishes within a twinkling of an eye. He, therefore, lauded Prof. Omotosho for advocating the use of songs as a means of impacting. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. K.T. Oduro; the Registrar, Mr. John Kofi Nyan, and some childhood friends of Prof. Omotosho during his elementary school days at Apinamang were part of the audience.