The Director in Charge of Entrepreneurship Programme at Coventry University, Prof. Gideon Maas, has said that Entrepreneurship Centres are very important to the socio-economic development of any country. However, he pointed out that the centres were facing neglect in the world and, therefore, called for entrepreneurs to tackle those challenges and create future solutions. Prof. Maas said these at a workshop organised by the Africa Institute for Transformational Entrepreneurship (AITE) to market its activities at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). The workshop which was also used to launch a book on Entrepreneurship Centres brought together entrepreneurs across Ghana. It was on the theme " Transformational Entrepreneurship: the Role of Entrepreneurship Centres ". Prof. Maas said the major challenges facing Entrepreneurship Centres were overly reliance on the provision of grants and subsidies, location of centers and limited and variability of resources. He indicated that entrepreneurship behaviour was changing as a result of globalisation, multi-cultural society, the need for “intrapreneurial behaviour” and the acceptance of multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary orientation. Prof. Maas urged universities to play a major role of Entrepreneurship education in order to produce knowledgeable and skilled workforce who could over time contribute to innovation and growth of the country. Taking his turn to address the workshop on the topic "Entrepreneurship Centres: UCC Experience ", the Head of Marketing and Supply Chain, Dr. Daniel Agyapong, said UCC has established the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development to enable students start their own business and contribute to national development. He said there were three Units within the Centre, namely: Entrepreneurship Education, Research and Publications and Business Incubation. Dr. Agyapong indicated that the Centre was in partnership with government to implement a three-year Exim Bank project on Graduate Enterprise Project Initiative. He said the Centre had taken over 10,000 students through a course in Entrepreneurship to provide them with entrepreneurial mindset as part of their training. He said the Centre was grappling with financial resources, physical infrastructural and limited human resource. The Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh, who opened and also closed the workshop , said the function was important to the University and expressed optimism that the discussion would lead to transformational Entrepreneurship. She was hopeful that AITE programme would make a difference in driving forward innovation and support wealth creation. Topics treated included “Educating for Transformation” and “Researching for Transformation”. The AITE is a platform which seeks to promote transformational entrepreneurship in Africa through education, research, and practice-based activity.

“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.

The Institute of Education has honoured 10 students from the Colleges of Education who excelled in the 2015/16 academic year. Dubbed “6th Excellence Awards Ceremony”, the awardees were selected from a total of 154 students of the 46 Teacher Training Colleges of Education in Ghana who had first class. Ms. Stephanie Tetteh Quansuwaa, from Tamale College of Education, who graduated with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.932 in Diploma in Basic Education, was adjudged the National Best Graduating Student. For her prize, she received a citation, laptop, modem, GH¢ 2,000.OO. and a scholarship to pursue post diploma programme in the University. The nine other awardees, 8 males and a female, received a citation, laptop and GH¢ 1,000 each. Speaking on the theme “Enhancing Basic Education through Quality Professional Teacher Training”, the President of the Trinity Theological Seminary, Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, underscored the need for professional teachers to hone their skills and competencies in order for them to avoid becoming rusty. To this end, he called for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for all professional teachers to be abreast of the changing trends in the profession. Rev. Prof. Mante called on teachers to be role models in their communities and also suggested to authorities in the education sector to develop a course on ethics of teaching or professionalism in teaching to help teachers discharge their duties well. He was of the view that menial jobs executed by trainee teachers at college help them to fit well in the society. “After we’ve thought them the academic subjects, let us teach our teachers how to take care of their lives and that sometimes include: learning how to scrub the bathroom, dressing properly, walking properly, talking properly, eating properly”, Prof. Mante said. He used the occasion to encourage the awardees to strive for excellence in all their endeavours and urged them to aim high like the proverbial eagle. The Director of the Institute, Prof. Frederick Ocansey, congratulated the awardees on their relentless efforts, perseverance and dedication to achieve academic excellence. He noted that the award ceremony was to help cultivate the creation of a “Culture of Excellence” among students in the colleges of education to work hard for academic excellence. He called on the public, especially students, to disabuse their minds of the perception that the Institute “is too rigid and difficult to please or satisfy in students’ examination performance.” The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, thanked both principals and tutors for shaping the lives of the awardees to achieve that enviable academic height and recognition. The Provost of the College of Education, Prof. Magnus Wilmot, who chaired the function, challenged female students to strive hard to sweep more awards at the next ceremony, stressing that “Next year, if it’s not 50% -50%, it should be about 70% women and 30% men.”

A delegation from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) was at the 37 Military Hospital to visit Emmanuel Quarshie, a level 100 student who was stabbed during the vandalism that recently happened at Oguaa Hall. The team which was led by the Dean of Student Affairs, Prof Koawo Edjah included the Director of University Health Services, Dr. Evans Ekanem and the Administrator of UCC Hospital, Mr. Atta Yeboah-Sarpong. Briefing the delegation on the health status of Emmanuel Quarshie, the Medical Officer in-charge of the Intensive Care Unit of 37 Hospital, Colonel G. A. Appiah, said Emmanuel was in a critical condition but the medical officers were doing everything possible to restore his health. He indicated that they had been able to prevent the spread of infections around the spinal cord. He,therefore, said that they would be monitoring his condition for another two weeks before another Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan would be taken. He said it was likely that Emmanuel would be discharged after the MRI scan since none of his spinal cord was broken except the wound at the portion where he was stabbed. The delegation later met Emmanuel’s parents and other relatives and assured them that the University would bear the medical bills. They also assured them that the police were investigating the incident to bring the perpetrators to book. The father of Emmanuel, Mr. Moses Tetteh Quarshie, said the entire family was saddened by the condition of their son but thanked the University authorities for the visit. In a related development, the Dean of Student Affairs, Prof Kwoaw Edjah, has called on the Head of Security at the University of Ghana, Mr. George Amofah Forkuo, to seek his assistance and cooperation during investigations, since some students from the Commonwealth Hall were involved in the incidence. Mr. Amofah said he was ready to cooperate with the UCC to find the culprits involved in the vandalism at Oguaa Hall. He called for an inter-university dialogue to handle security on the various campuses in Ghana.