The Vice-Chancellor,Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, has showered encomium on students of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) for acquitting themselves admirably on campus devoid of agitations.

According to him, the exemplary behaviour by the students lent credence to the feat chalked up by the university as the topmost ranked in Ghana and West Africa.

“I will say our students are well-behaved among all students in the country. So far campus has been so peaceful. So if today UCC is the top ranked university in Ghana and West Africa and fourth in Africa, we could not have achieved this feat if we have not gotten the support of the students,” said the visibly elated Vice-Chancellor.

Prof. Boampong gave the commendations during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected executives of the Students; Representative Council (SRC), UCC Local Chapter of National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG-UCC) held at the Academic Board Chamber.

Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the Vice-Chancellor, and some top university officials with executives of SRC and GRASAG.

While congratulating the new executives on their election and inauguration, he promised to keep an open door policy to address the concerns of students to ensure harmonious relationship between management and student leadership.

Prof. Boampong assured the new leadership of the support of his office to ensure their term in office was a success.

The Vice-Chancellor appealed to the new elected officers to support the executive management of the University to put up a new hostel on campus to solve the perennial challenges students face with securing accomodation.

The seven-member executive of the SRC comprised the President, Vincent Kojo Siabi; Vice-President Gertrude Addo; General Secretary, Esther Obeng;SRC Co-odinating Secretary, Franklina Yarkey; Treasurer, Anthony Yeboah; Women’s Commissioner, Hawa Awudu, and Public Relations Officer, Abdulai Issifu.

Mr. Jeff Teye Onyame - Registrar

The new officers took the oath of office administered by the Registrar, Mr. Jeff Teye Emmanuel Onyame.

The SRC President, Mr. Vincent Kojo Siabi, in his inaugural speech, expressed appreciation to the students for the confidence and trust reposed in him.

Vincent Kojo Siabi - SRC President

He congratulated the immediate past executives led by Latif Lawrence Jorhowie, for their hardwork.

Mr. Siabi gave assurance to continue the uncompleted works of the old administration to improve the quality of life of students and asked for the support of all to succeed in his tenure.

At the ceremony, the executives of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Chapter (GRASAG-UCC) were sworn into office.

They were: President, Kwabena Agyepong; Vice-President, Miriam Frimpong; Secretary, Eugenia Afi Opare ; Treasurer, Christmal George Kpodo; Organiser, Dominic Kabutey; Financial Secretary, Alfred Andoh ; Public Relations Officer, Linus Mensah-Monnie and Women’s Commissioner, Frederica Ozoki, were the newly sworn executives.

Mr. Kwabena Agyepong,for his part, pledged to justify the trust placed in him and worked to promote the welfare of postgraduate students during his tenure.

Mr. Kwabena Agyepong- GRASAG-UCC President

The Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) has held Research Excellence for staff and students of the University at the School of Graduate Studies Auditorium.

The guest speaker,  Prof. Isaac Luginaah, a distinguished professor and an alumnus of University of Cape Coast and  Western University, Canada spoke on the topic “Building Research Excellence Career/Institutions in the 21st Century: The Importance of Quality and Benchmarking.” 

Prof.  Luginaah who has made field-defining theoretical and methodological contributions, addressing impacts of environmental hazards and vulnerabilities in population health, led the participants through the principles and importance of benchmarking, as well as some emerging contemporary issues.

Quoting Hammer and Stranton 1995, he explained that “benchmarking is the systemic process of searching for best practices, innovative ideas and highly effective operating procedures that lead to superior performance”.

“Benchmarking enables the identification of processes needing improvement, improvement of didactic, research, financial and administrative processes and a better adaptation of didactics and research to market demand.  Benchmarking is the secret to success,” he added.

Professor Luginaah, raised concerns on the scholarly focus on impact factor rankings of journals rather than focusing on research findings.

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^{Prof. Luginaah delivering a lecture}

He criticised journal impact factors of been skewed adding that they could be manipulated and lack transparency.

However, the distinguished professor admitted that in recent times, impact factor had become one of the gold standards of measuring research quality.

He noted that there was a pressing need to improve the ways in which the output of scientific research was evaluated by funding agencies, academic institutions, and other parties.

Prof. Luginaah recommended that institutions should be explicit about their hiring criteria and that assessments should be based on scientific content rather than on only publication metrics.

He further encouraged the individual scholars to set their own quality and benchmarks which were based on practice and contextually relevant.

To that end, he challenged universities in Ghana to re-think the high in-breeding thus recruiting their own products as faculty and staff since it could stifle creativity and innovation.

Prof. Luginaah mentioned direct emulation and inappropriate context as some of the risk of benchmarking.

According to Prof. Luginaah  despite the challenges of benchmarking, if done right, could advance scientific knowledge, nurture intellectual curiosity, foster collaboration and networking, cause cross-pollination of ideas, build supportive networks and facilities and facilitate continuous improvement and innovations.

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^{Prof. Doku giving his closing remarks.}

The Director of DRIC, Prof. David Teye Doku, remarked that benchmarking would help in monitoring quality and increase productivity.

He emphasised that the University coyld increase productivity by paying attention to benchmarking.

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^{Participants of the lecture}

Management of the University of Cape Coast and staff unions have resolved to create a congenial environment that will foster industrial harmony on campus.

Leadership from the four staff unions- University Teachers Association UTAG), Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Senior Staff Association (SSA) and Teachers and Education Workers (TEWU) participated in the 2022 Management and Staff retreat which was held in Takoradi from 18th -20th August, 2023.

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The annual meeting provides the platform for both management and union leaders to express their grievances, share perspectives, and find common ground to advance the cause of the University.

Opening the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong acknowledged the contributions of unions as pivotal to the progress of the University.

The Vice-Chancellor indicated that UCC’s status as the number ranked university in Ghana, West Africa and fourth in Africa behoves on all staff a responsibility to play their respective roles effectively to reposition the University as a role model for other institutions.

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“Let’s all contribute towards creating an environment of trust, respect, and understanding, where the talents and contributions of all employees are recognised and their commitment to the well-being of the staff and the importance of creating a harmonious work environment” he emphasised.

The Vice-Chancellor acknowledged the challenges faced by the employees and expressed management’s willingness to engage them to find mutually beneficial solutions.

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Some of the issues discussed at the retreat included Staff Common Fund, Unions Participation in UCC Enterprise, Construction of UCC Market and Activities, Report from UCC Staff Health Fund Committee, Discussion on Promoting Labour Harmony, and Reports from the four Unions and other concerns by the Union leaders.

At the end of the three two-day retreat, Management and leaders of the Unions reaffirmed their commitment to work together in the interest of the University and also promote the welfare of staff to sustain UCC’s status as the University of Competitive Choice.

As part of the retreat, some of the participants embarked on a tour of the Western Naval Command in Sekondi to acquaint themselves with the activities of the Ghana Navy.

The team had opportunity to experience private vessel tour.