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UCC is member of ARUA

UCC becomes latest member of ARUA

18 May, 2023 By DIS

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) has granted the University of Cape Coast,UCC, a full-fledged membership.

The move makes it possible for researchers at the University of Cape Coast to participate in all ARUA activities including conferences, workshops, training programmes and research projects.  Member universities are obliged to be active in all the affairs of the network, as well as in the work of the Centres of Excellence, as well as expected to participate fully in the development and restructuring of graduate and research programmes across the region.

The decision was taken by the Executive Committee of ARUA on Thursday 17th  May, 2022.

The Executive Committee at an earlier meeting offered conditional admission to UCC subject to satisfying all of the eligibility criteria. The meeting, chaired by the ARUA Board Chair, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, declared its satisfaction with the effort made by University of Cape Coast to meet the eligibility criteria as reflected in the data made available about the University and its performance over the last five years.

The development makes it possible for researchers at the University of Cape Coast to participate in all ARUA activities, including conferences, workshops, training programmes and research projects.  

Member universities are obliged to be active in all the affairs of the network, as well as in the work of the Centres of Excellence, as well as expected to participate fully in the development and restructuring of graduate and research programmes across the region.

In a congratulatory message to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, ARUA Secretary-General, Professor Ernest Aryeetey said he looked forward to seeing the University’s contribution to the life and work of ARUA to enhance the development of research in the member universities and on the continent.

ARUA is a network of like-minded universities that are anxious to grow the research portfolio at their universities through collaboration. ARUA universities are desirous to make Africa’s contribution to the global generation of knowledge more noticeable. Most of the work to achieve this is carried out through the 13 Centres of Excellence located at some of the member universities of ARUA.

The University of Cape Coast is one of the leading institutions of higher education in Ghana and nurtures a vision of becoming a university with a worldwide acclaim that is strongly positioned for innovative teaching, research, outreach and professional development.

The collaboration between ARUA and the University of Cape Coast provides further opportunity to leverage research capacity to tackle trans-national and regional challenges across the continent.ARUA is indeed happy to receive University of Cape Coast as a full member.

Credit:Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC)

 

Ms Geek Africa Winner

UCC Student Crowned Winner of Ms Geek Africa 2023 Competition

17 May, 2023 By DIS

A 21-year-old final-year student of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ms Selasi Ama Domi-Kuwornu has been crowned winner of the 2023 Ms. Geek Africa competition.

 

The Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation launched the Ms. Geek Ghana Competition on October 9, 2019, aimed at empowering girls in the field of ICT.

 

This year's keenly contested event was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, from April 26-28, 2023.

 

According to Graphic Online, the international award of Ms Domi-Kuwornu comes after she won the 2019 Miss Geek Ghana competition and with support from the Ministry, participated in the Ms Geek Africa competition and won the ultimate title.

 

For her prize, she received a laptop, smartphone, and a cash prize of US $5,000.

 

Ascend Digital Solutions Limited in Accra also promised to give her a cash price of $1,000 in addition to a job opportunity to enable her secure a better future.

 

Ms Domi-Kuwornu was contested by six other young ladies knowledgeable in ICT duties from Rwanda, Kenya, Benin, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Niger. All applicants presented a solution that was original, scalable, and feasible within Africa and beyond, which seeks to address electronic pilfering in the ICT field.

 

The project of the girls was judged based on the theme of the summit, “Connect, Transform and Innovate” focusing on challenges that are unique to the African continent.

 

Miss Domi-Kuwornu presented a project named “Kasa-Cash”, an offline system that enables illiterates, physically challenged, unserved, and underserved communities to be able to effortlessly perform financial services without third-party assistance.

 

The Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful speaking ahead of the competition, said her ministry was committed to highlighting the role females bring to the tech sector and would also offer young girls an opportunity to showcase what they have.

 

Source: Graphiconline.com

Prof Doku

DRIC organises Writing a Winnable Grant Proposal.

17 May, 2023 By DIS

The Directorate of Research Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) has organised a seminar on grant proposal writing.

It was on the theme " Structure and essentials of a winnable grant proposal ".

Speaking at the programme, Director of DRIC, Prof. David Doku, said good proposal was a precondition to attract grant.

Director of DRIC, Prof. David Doku

 

"No grant comes through without a proposal. To win a grant, you must write a good proposal", he added.

Prof. Doku noted that grant proposal was needed because " it requires funding, helps plan the proposed research and help to organise research in a logical, focused and effective way."

Prof. Doku singled out project title and acronym, cover letter, executive summary, need statement, goals and objectives and methodology as major components of a grant proposal.

He also mentioned that " a need statement is a compelling description of the need or problem to be addressed by the applicant.

" In a need statement, your organisation should have the mandate to address the need; the need statement should address the call, and many more," he continued.

He advised that the need statement should be sweet, concise and simple and easily digestible.

In the process of writing a need strategy, Prof. Doku mentioned that “we state clearly what the need is, we use clear and credible statistics to support our argument, give clear sense of urgency and the need statement should be persuasive without being wordy".

He added that a good need statement gives the viewer the needed information to understand the objectives and approaches in the proposal, builds up towards answering a specific question that is unknown, discuss relevant data on the subject, etc.

Prof. Doku emphasised that a research plan must be so detailed that an independent researcher could carry out the study based on the plan.

 He added that to write a good proposal, one must read the call very well.

Participants in the workshop

Invest in Professional Development and Networking- Prof. Aheto

11 May, 2023 By DIS

The Director of Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR), Denis Aheto, has urged the working class to invest in professional development to advance their career.

He said workers must be equipped with new knowledge and skills for rapid progressive growth and also get better opportunities in other areas and their field of specialisation.

“ You have to invest in buying new books, softwares, online educational materials to equip yourselves for your personal development-it may open doors of opportunities for you” he stressed.

Prof. Aheto was speaking at the opening of a five-day orientation workshop organised by the Centre for Coastal Management (CCM) at the University of Cape Coast.

Prof. Denis W. Aheto giving a remark at the opening ceremony of the workshop

The Director of ACECoR explained that the workshop formed part of the mandate of CCM to build the capacities organisations and individuals through short courses in relevant areas of coastal development.

He indicated that CCM through had been organising short courses targeting professionals in engaged in the field of integrated coastal management, fisheries management, climate change adaptation and geographic information systems or individuals whose work were affected by issues of fisheries, development and physical planning in coastal areas. 

Prof. Aheto said Geographic Information Systems is a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding drivers and pressures of environmental change. “GIS is relevant in the Humanities and Sciences to understand and address issues affecting the environment”.

He urged the participants to be active and involved in all sessions of the workshop.

Topics for the workshop include : Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Principles of Remote Sensing; Introducation to Windows Explorer, QGIS Browser and Explore GIS datat; Data Structures and Model; Introduction to QGIS Desktop; Creating Maps with QGIS; Coordinate Systems; Map Projection; Coordinate and projection systems; Geo-referencing. Others are: Geo-referencing raster data; Data Capture and Creation; Vector and Data Structure; Map Creation and Visualisation; Database and Attribute Table; Global Positioning System; Data Collection: Field data collection using handheld GPS units; Conversion of Coordinate units, Displaying GPS Coordinates in QGIS.

The workshop was attended by academics, surveyors, architects, engineers and students.

For more pictures click here

#54congregation
Prof. Awuah-Nyamekye delivering the lecture

Religion plays key role in protecting the environment -Prof. Awuah-Nyamekye

08 May, 2023 By DIS

A professor of Religion and Environment, Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye, has tasked religious leaders to devote much time to conscientise their followers on the need to conserve the environment.

That, he noted, would go a long way to safeguard the environment and promote sustainable growth.

"To me, the impact of this will be far greater than the annual week declared by some religious denominations to do environmental cleaning and talk about the environment," he added.

Prof. Awuah-Nyamekye made these comments while delivering his inaugural lecture on the topic: " The Nexus between Religion and Environment: Matters Arising."

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye being robed by the College of Professors

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye being robed by the College of Professors

Expounding on the contributions of the three main religions in Ghana to the preservation of the environment, he said, for instance, traditional believers had mechanisms for addressing ecological problems, mentioning attitude towards rivers and lands, sacred grove, belief in totem, institution of sacred days, among others.

For Christians, Prof. Awuah, added that they had instituted days to as a measure to plant trees to protect the environment.

As regards Islamic Religion, he observed that "Islam is a religion that enjoins its followers to respect creation and protect the environment.”

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye exchanging pleasantries with family members after the lecture

The audience at the inaugural lecture

He called on government to seek the inputs of religious organisations in the design of policy on the environment to protect the country’s forests, rivers, farmlands, and environment from destruction.

Prof. Awuah Nyamekye called for effective measures to be put in place to integrate religious environmentalism and its sub-field environmental ethics into Ghana's educational curricula for the youth to appreciate the need to conserve the environment.

He mentioned disrespect for other religions' ways of addressing ecological problems and tagging them as unscientific as a major problem for using religion to address some of the ecological problems.

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye exchanging pleasantries with family members after the lecture

Prof. Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye exchanging pleasantries with family members after the lecture

Prof. Awuah Nyamekye at a glance:

• Born on 25the January 1962 at Biadan near Berekum

• Began education at the Biadan Methodist School

• Had secondary education at Berekum and Dormaa secondary schools

• Appointed as Assistant Lecturer in 2003

•Published two books, co-edited two books.

• Authored 23 articles in internationally esteemed scholarly journals and 15 books chapters

• Supervised  two PhD students

* Married with eight children

 
The team inspecting facilities at Praise Export Services

UCC, QUB and UKRI-AAKTP embark on research for Rapid Detection of Quality Palm oil

08 May, 2023 By DIS

The University of Cape Coast and the Institute for Global Food Security, Queens University Belfast (QUB) in Ireland are undertaking a joint research project to boost the production of quality palm oil production for local consumption and export.

The 15-months project which is being funded through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation aims at developing a novel, rapid, non-destructive, handheld test to determine the integrity and quality of palm oil and palm cream concentrate.

Among other things, the project is expected to provide technical support to Praise Export Services, a local export company at Pokuase in the Greater Accra Region, to solve palm oil adulteration and the determination of palm cream quality before the products are exported outside Ghana.

The project focuses on traceability and fraud management of palm oil; providing Praise Export with world class affordable, onsite system to ensure the integrity of their palm oil and other potential products; and to develop digital and a cloud-based link to obtain rapid testing results at a very low cost.

In connection with the project, the Programme Manager of KTP, Mr. Richard Lamp and, KTP Advisor, Mr. John Clayton visited Ghana to familiarise themselves with progress of work since the inception of the project.

Hosting the delegation at the premises of Praise Export Services in Accra, Prof. Ernest Teye of  Department of Agricultural Engineering, UCC briefed them about activities carried so far. 

Prof. Teye who is the Principlal Investigator for the project indicated that the team had made significant feat as far as the objectives of the project was concerned. He mentioned that the team was working towards making great impact with the project to improve the palm tree value chain to produce healthy and standard products for local consumption and export.

Prof. Ernest Teye with a carton of packaged palm product for export

A postgraduate student of UCC, Ms. Regina Nyorkeh, was sponsored as part of the project to build her capacity and  to undertake laboratory tests at QUB.

Briefing the team about her activities at QUB, Ms. Nyorkeh who is an associate of the project said she was taken through Creativity and Innovation, Change Management, Strategic Thinking, Competitive Advantage, Cash flow and break-even analysis and Final Accounts and Ratio Analysis.

Ms Nyorkeh reported that she  undertook preparation of laboratory protocol for methodologies of Sudan dyes adulteration; different nanoparticles SERS method of analysis; and laboratory practices and safety measures.

The team with the Chief Executive of Praise Export Services, Mr. Godwin Edem Adordie (2nd from left)

In order to transfer the knowledge acquired at QUB, Ms Nyorkeh said there were plans to build the capacity of postgraduate students and industry players on Food Safety and Quality Standards and demonstration of the handheld methodology of the analytical tests for Sudan dye detection at PESL inviting key stakeholders in Ghana’s crude palm oil value chain.

The team were later taken on a tour of the factory of Export Services Limited.

A team from QUB also joined the meeting via virtual.

KTP Manager, Mr. Richard Lamp

Pro Vice-Chancellor receives Manager of KTP-URI

08 May, 2023 By DIS

 

The Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rosemond Boohene, has received the Programme Manager of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), United Kingdom, Mr. Richard Lamp, who is on a working visit to the University.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Lamp said KTP had introduced the African Agriculture Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AAKTP) in Ghana to help address challenges in the Agriculture sector.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Rosemond Boohene, chairing the meeting with the KTP delegation

He told the Pro Vice-Chancellor that KTP promotes collaborations between higher education institutions and industrial partners, allowing them to develop solutions that promote innovation and increase competitiveness.

Against that backdrop, he was in the University to familiarise himself with the AAKTP project on campus.

KTP delegation

Welcoming Mr. Lamp and his accompanying delegation to the University, Prof. Boohene expressed gratitude to Mr Lamp for the visit and said the Project would deepen the   entrepreneurial drive of UCC.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor expressed her wish to further enhance relations between UCC and KTP.

The delegation accompanying the KTP Programme Manager included Mr. John Clayton, KTP Advisor, KTP Associate, Regina Nyorkeh, Co-Advisor of KTP, Dr. Charles L. C. Amuah.

The meeting was attended by the Prinicipal Investigator of KTP-UK project at UCC and Dr. Prof Ernest Teye, from the Department of Agricultural Engineering;  the Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC), Prof. David Teye Doku, and the Assistant Registrar at the Monitoring and Evaluation Office-UCC, Mr. Daniel Yeboah Mensah.

 

 

Participants in the lecture

Lack of funds hampering Malaria eradication- Dr. Lenhart

08 May, 2023 By DIS

The Chief of the Entomology Branch of the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Audrey Lenhart, says inadequate funds is hampering the fight against malaria eradication.

She is, therefore, calling on governments across the globe to have the political will to increase  funding for malaria control activities in their countries.

She said malaria elimination was feasible with adequate resources.

Dr. Lenhart made the call at a Seminar organised by the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

It was on the topic:"Optimising Control Strategies for Insecticide Resistance Mosquito Vectors of Arboviruses and Plasmodia".

Dr. Audrey Lenhart delivering the lecture

She said malaria is a potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne disease caused by a plasmodium parasite.

She stated that the use of proven tools and methods such as insecticide-treated bed nets, better case management of malaria in children and pregnant women, expanded use of preventative medicine during high malaria transmission season, and insecticide resistance monitoring had contributed to reduction of the disease burden in most countries.

"It is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito, which sees the parasite multiplying in the host's liver before infecting and destroying the red blood cell,"  she noted.

According to her, the standard vector control tools were not sufficient to eliminate the disease.

In the light of that, Dr. Lenhart added that: "novel interventions that address the growing spread of insecticide resistance and more “atypical” malaria vector behaviours are going to be really important to fill vector control gaps and therefore better protect people from the bites of infected mosquitoes."

Speaking at the seminar, the Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR), Prof Denis Aheto, who chaired the event, said the fight against the scourge of malaria was becoming herculean task and called for scientific research and genetic work to eliminate the disease.

He, however, stated that mosquitoes could be managed by practising proper environmental cleanliness.

Prof.  Aheto asked the Department of Biomedical Sciences to take advantage of Dr. Lenhart to collaborate with CDC-USA.

School of Business Rolls Out Sandwich MBA programmes for GAF Personnel

08 May, 2023 By DIS

The School of Business has rolled out MBA programmes for personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on sandwich module. 

The move was hinged on a collaboration between the School of Business of University of Cape Coast and the Training School of Finance of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).

The first cohort of students were offered admission to pursue MBA in Accounting, Finance, Management, Human Resource, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Procurement and Supply Chain Management programmes.

The programmes, which will run on both online and face-to-face basis for a one year duration, are expected to end in May 2024.

At an orientation for the students at Burma Camp in Accra, the Dean of the School of Business-UCC, Prof. John Gartchie Gatsi, congratulated the students for having secured admission into the University and stated that it was the first step towards the fulfilment of their dreams. 

 

The Dean of the School of Business-UCC, Prof. John Gartchie Gatsi

 

 

He observed that there  was an increasing demand for MBA programmes by professionals and industry players who barely had time for regular programmes given their work schedules. In view of that, Prof. Gatsi said the School of Business found it imperative to roll out the sandwich MBA Programmes to build the professional capacities of the military personnel.

The Dean, therefore, lauded the the collaboration between the two institutions and added that UCC was committed to providing unrivalled academic excellence by providing the enabling environment to improve teaching and learning. He urged the students to tap into the rich experience of the pool of lecturers within the School of Business.

Prof. Gatsi said the University would not com­promise on any form of academic dishonesty, and advised the stu­dents to desist from examination malpractice.

For his part, the Defense Financial Controller at GAF, General Daniel K. Amissah, praised the School of Business for the collaboration to  cater for the educational needs of personnel of GAF.

"This collaboration perfectly fits into the high  command’s vision of maintaining highly motivated, highly professional and well equipped officers and soldiers with requisite knowledge, skills and expertise to perform their duties effectively and efficiently" he added.

General Amissah said, "The Training School of Finance remains the only institution in the GAF that provides in-service training in finance and accounting related courses to officers." He therefore, welcomed the decision of the School of Business to run all its programmes to the advantage of military officers. 

 

Defense Financial Controller at GAF, General Daniel K. Amissah

 

He also entreated UCC to develop other programmes outside finance and accounting to enable other officers without business background seize the opportunity to enroll.

General Amissah encouraged the students to take their studies seriously and eschew acts of dishonesty and cheating, especially during examinations and warned that such acts were totally unacceptable and would not be tolerated under any circumstance by the Ghana Armed Forces.

The Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof Kwame Osei Kwarteng, who chaired the orientation , congratulated the students for sailing through the selection process to be admitted into  the number one university in Ghana and West Africa.

 

The Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof Kwame Osei Kwarteng

 

Other University officials took turns to inform the fresh students about the services rendered by their respective outfits to aid their stay on campus.

 

 

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