The University of Cape Coast has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Police Service to train personnel of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Forensic Investigation.
    
With the signing of the MoU, the University through the Department of Forensic Sciences will mentor the CID Detective Training Academy (DTA) in Accra to run programmes at various academic levels including certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate.

Unique Collaboration

In his address, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said the collaboration with the Police Service was a unique one, since it offered the University the opportunity to contribute towards fighting crime and also ensuring peace and security in the country. Prof. Ampiah noted that the University was gradually extending its tentacles to cover all the security agencies in the country. “We have already entered into a similar collaboration with the Ghana National Fire Service and we want to assure you that UCC will equip your personnel to effectively carry out their duties,” he pledged.

The Vice-Chancellor commended the Police Administration for selecting UCC for the collaboration and congratulated them for including an academic component to the training of its personnel. He said through the affiliation, UCC faculty would share their expertise and experiences with tutors to provide quality professional and academic training to personnel of the CID in particular. This, he said would be extended to other personnel of the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies with investigative arm.

Benefits

Touching on some of the benefits of the affiliation to the Ghana Police Service, Prof. Ampiah indicated that the University had a strong collaboration with Gujarat Forensic Sciences University (GFSU) in India, one of the best institutions in Forensic Sciences in the world from which the service can benefit. “Gujarat has offered scholarships to some of our staff and students and they have even promised to establish a training centre at UCC, so the Ghana Police Service can also benefit from their expertise,” he announced.

Academic Training

On his part, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh, who signed the MoU on behalf of Ghana Police Service, noted that DTA trained sister security agencies and other state organisations on criminal and forensic investigation. He was hopeful that the affiliation would provide top-notch academic training to personnel in addition to the professional skills and expertise they would acquire from the training. “We look forward to churning out highly competent investigators to complement the services of the police through this collaboration,” he added.

Mr. Oppong-Boanuh said the affiliation would serve as a model to rope in other regional and national training schools of the Service, namely “the Ghana Police Academy which trains new recruits and junior officers and the Command and Staff Training School for senior officers”.

The Inspector General of Police thanked the University for accepting to mentor them adding that “I am hopeful that this will be a win-win partnership to both institutions”. He indicated that UCC lecturers were very familiar with the police environment already and it was his expectation that personnel from the service would receive the best of training to enable them to become confident when conducting investigations. 

Present were some Management members of the University and the Ghana Police Service

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah has launched the second research report of the University spanning 2017-2019 at a ceremony on campus .
    
The research report touches on the multidisciplinary and solutions-driven research that has been undertaken by researchers in the University working in teams. The report also highlights the growing importance of networks and multi-stakeholder partnerships in driving research impact.

UCCROME/UCCSCHOLAR

The Vice-Chancellor also launched the UCC Research Output Monitor and Evaluator (UCCROME/UCCSCHOLAR) which is the first in West Africa and among the first on the continent. Through UCCROME/UCCSCHOLAR web application departments, faculties, schools can track their research endeavours to identify gaps and ways through which these could be addressed. It also serves as a diagnostic tool to guide all faculty on how they are faring using the key performance indicators embedded in this web application. 

Solving Challenges

Speaking at the launch, the Vice-Chancellor said he was proud that at a time of rapid social and technological changes, UCC faculty, researchers and innovators were tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges and intriguing questions. He noted that the research partnerships profiled in the publication highlighted the University’s talent garnering recognition at home and abroad. “While their subject matter is wide-ranging - from fingerprinting rice developing system to manage food fraud through performing sustainability via cultures and development in West Africa, to studying the anti-malarial property of xylopic acid, to shedding new light on real-world socio-political challenges through literature - they have all played an important role in advancing our collective knowledge and connecting UCC with the world” he stated.

Contribution of UCC Researchers

According to the Vice-Chancellor, the report indicated that UCC researchers and scholars were contributing immensely to research in four impact areas. He outlined the four areas as “knowledge expansion and innovation, human capital development, economic development and societal wellbeing and quality of life. However, he said it was obvious that the University’s fingerprint in terms of funded research collaboration with colleagues in neighbouring countries and West Africa, in general, was negligible even though there were similarities in societal circumstances and challenges.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that the launch of the research report was a demonstration of his unflinching and longstanding vision and commitment to making the University’s research work locally and internationally visible. “I am elated to say that it is during my tenure as Vice-Chancellor, that the first and second research reports were crafted and launched,” he stressed.

The Vice-Chancellor commended DRIC for championing his vision of improving research in the University through the launch of the UCCROME/UCCSCHOLAR. He announced that for the first time, UCC had been listed in the top 100 universities in Africa.

Scholarly Partnerships

The Director of DRIC, Prof. Frederick Ato Armah, noted that UCC had ongoing scholarly partnerships with institutions across the globe in four broad areas. He said the areas for the partnerships were capacity building, research, innovation and consultancy services. However, he pointed out that UCC’s global partnership was mainly North-South collaboration, adding that “South-South research partnerships are virtually non-existent in UCC’s constellation of collaborations”. He further indicated that there was no funded research partnership with a single institution in South America. 

Prof. Armah said efforts should be made to secure South-South research collaborations with African countries especially, between Ghana and its neighbouring countries thus Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. “The stark reality is exacerbated by the fact that UCC has relatively very few partners in Africa,” he disclosed.
    
While commending the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Armah said the University’s achievement in the area of the two innovations could be attributed to the good leadership of Prof. Ampiah. 

The Director of DRIC also made a live demonstration of how the UCCROME/UCCSCHOLAR works.

The University of Cape Coast has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Ghanaian-based Indian Company, Park Agrotech Ghana Limited as part of plans to revamp the Komenda Sugar Factory.

Speaking on the partnership, the Head, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Prof. Aaron Tettey Asare, said with the reopening of the Komenda Sugar Factory in 2015, the University undertook some research works to identify suitable planting material for the operation of the Sugar Factory. He indicated that the research was conducted using micro propagating techniques or tissue culture to rapidly multiply sugarcane and assess its’ potential yields.  He said, “having been successful, the information was made known to the public after which Park Agrotech Ghana Limited expressed interest to partner with the University to produce sugarcane to salvage the Factory.

Prof. Asare stated that the signing of MoU between UCC and Park Agrotech Ghana Limited had formalised the relationship to operationalise their activities. He indicated that “the key roles of the University were to generate planting material (sugarcane) for the company and its outgrowers and to provide all the needed strategic and technical expertise to complement the company’s effort to operationalise the Komenda Sugar Factory.”

Team leader the company, Mr. Lalit K. Mishra, commended Management of the University for showing interest to partner with the Park Agrotech Ghana Limited to revamp the Factory to support livelihoods and create opportunities. He was hopeful that, the partnership would go a long way to generate some avenues to utilise human capital. Mr. Mishra, who is also the Managing Director of the company, thanked Prof. Aaron Asare for his immense contribution towards the formalisation and establishment of the partnership. He noted that the company would remain committed to its’ obligations in order to achieve the intended purpose of the MoU between both parties. 

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, expressed profound gratitude to the company for its’ commitment and focus. He also applauded the leadership of the School of Biological Sciences for its’ laudable ideas and initiatives to help salvage the Sugar Factory at Komenda. Prof. Ampiah assured the team of the continuous support of the University towards the operation of the Komenda Sugar Factory. He was hopeful that the formalisation of the partnership would mark the beginning of new ideas, initiatives, innovations in research for students and lecturers and create job opportunities for the people of Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Municipality, Central Region and Ghana. The Vice-Chancellor also noted that “this initiative will project the image of UCC, and we are ready to support and partner this laudable idea.”

Present were the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh, Registrar, Mr. John Kofi Nyan, Member of Council of State, Maj. Gen. Richardson Edwin Baiden (Rtd) and Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. Moses Jojo Eghan. Others were the Director, Directorate of Research, Innovation, and Consultancy, Prof. Frederick Ato Armah; Dean, School of Biological Sciences, Prof. Justice Kwabena Sarfo, and Acting Director, Directorate of Public Affairs, Major (Rtd) Kofi Baah-Bentum.