The School of Graduate Studies has held the second edition of research seminar for postgraduate students at the School of Medical Sciences Auditorium.

The seminar which was organised by the School of Graduate Studies in conjunction with the College of Education Studies, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences and Graduate Students Association of Ghana was on the theme ‘Enhancing Capacity for Postgraduate Research’.

Presenting on the topic’ Academic Writing and Publishing, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Joseph B.A Afful, urged participants to pay attention to precision, references, tenses, voices when writing thesis. He said graduate researchers’ quotations from other studies should have basis in order to produce meaningful work.

Prof. Afful stressed the need for participants to take editing and proofreading seriously. The Dean took the students through hedging, voices and modality.

The Vice- Dean School of Educational Development and Outreach, Dr. (Mrs.) Christine Adu-Yeboah, who spoke on the topic ‘Effective Supervision: Roles, Skills and Publishing’ called on the students to plan their research work well in order to meet the standard of the University. She called on supervisors to support their students to produce excellent dissertation.

Dr. (Mrs.) Christine Adu-Yeboah pointed out that the only way students could present quality research work was to collaborate with their supervisors. Taking his turn to address the participants on the topic ‘Examining a Thesis/Dissertation and Viva Voce”, Prof. David K. Essumang, urged graduate researchers to be abreast of VIVA VOCE, a criterion for assessing students’ dissertations in the University.

 Prof. Essumang urged the students to be familiar with the features of writing good dissertation. The participants had their questions addressed by the speakers.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has described as unfortunate the misrepresentation of comments he made on reducing cost to the University by some media portals.

He noted that the quest to reduce cost to the University was not in any way an indictment on any person, group of persons or the immediate past administration of the UCC.

On the 22nd of October 2016, during his induction ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor said the University could channel more money into research if cost accrued from fuel, refreshment, stationery and printing was reduced.

Some media portals have suggested that Prof. Ampiah’s comments indicate that past management of the University of Cape Coast were misappropriating funds and sitting on rot, which is not the situation.

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Prof Ampiah noted that with the exception of the misquotation of an amount of 68 million Ghana Cedis purported to have been used on stationery, the other figures reflected the actual amounts used in the running of the University considering its external responsibilities.  But he was quick to add that these expenditures were justified considering the range of services the University had to provide.

He said the University has a population of over a hundred thousand students with about 80% of them located in other parts of the country through the distance education programme with oversight responsibility over Colleges of Education in the Country. “For the College of Distance Education alone, a lot of travelling for supervision, marking and accommodation of staff is required. All these come at a cost to the University, so my vision is to digitize aspects of our work to reduce expenditure and channel these amounts into research”, he said.

Prof. Ampiah added that his comment does not in any way suggest that the immediate past administration of the University was corrupt.

“I am not indicting anyone or my predecessors because I was a part of that administration and an indictment on them is an indictment on myself”, he concluded.

He called on the University Community to support him to move the University forward.

The Students Representative Council (SRC) has launched the Students Welfare Assistance Fund (SWAF) to support needy students on campus.

With a seed capital of GH¢ 112,200, the Fund seeks to provide requisite support for students' short-term financial needs on campus.

The launch which was well-attended by scores of students was on theme "Mitigating Financial Challenges of Students, the Role of the SRC."

The Dean of Students Affairs, Prof. Koawo Edjah, who launched SWAF, lauded the leadership of the SRC for instituting the Fund to support financially handicapped students on campus. Prof. Edjah, who chaired the function, noted that SWAF would operate side-by-side with the students' handbook.

Consequently, he said, students could be rusticated if they try to mislead the committee responsible for the disbursement of the Fund. Prof. Edjah, whose outfit personally donated GH¢ 18,000 to support the Fund, said prospective applicants should be honest when filling the SWAF forms.

The Dean of Students called on students to disabuse their minds that SWAF was an avenue for the SRC to embezzle money, noting that stringent measures had been put in place to safeguard the Fund. He urged public-spirited individuals and institutions to support the Fund.

For his part, the Vice-Dean of Students, Dr. Eugene Dartey, commended the SRC for the initiative. He lauded the Francis-Arthur-led administration for mooting the idea last year and the current SRC leadership for sustaining the initiative.

Dr. Dartey emphasised that, with the introduction of SWAF, students would not engage in unhealthy lifestyles as a result of their financial problems. He urged needy students to take advantage of the Fund to improve their economic wellbeing on campus.

On his part, The SRC President, Mr. Dennis Larbi Ampofo, hailed the students for their dedication to support their colleague students with the SWAF. He praised the Office of the Dean of Students Affairs for its support for the Fund.

Mr. Ampofo urged students to ignore claims that the leadership of the SRC would misappropriate the money. "As president, I'll not condone any act which will seek to undermine the credibility of this Fund, he added. He advised the students to adhere to the rules and regulations governing the Fund so as to access it with dispatch. The SRC president informed the students that SWAF forms were available at the SRC office and the Dean of Students Affairs office for students to access the Fund. He expressed gratitude to Atlantic Hall, Oguaa Hall, Kwame Nkrumah Hall, SRC Hostel, Local NUGS, SRC and the office of the Dean of Students Affairs for committing financial resources to support the Fund.