Professor Nsowah-Nuamah, President, Regent University

A new era in Regent University’s forward march - Professor Nicholas

Graphic Business Business News Feb - 01 - 2017 , 06:21

GB: Congratulations on your appointment Prof., what is the motivation behind your decision to take up this post?

NNN: I was the rector for the now Kumasi Technical University (then Kumasi Polytechnic) from 2010 to December 2016. For the past six years, I have been in the area of science, technology and engineering. I thought that what I had started at the Kumasi Technical University which I was not able to complete, this is a good opportunity to pursue.

I had other opportunities but I chose to come here although some were prepared to give me higher when they got to know I was coming here. Regent is a science and technology institution and I have been with them from the beginning.

For the past 10 years, I have been the Chairman of the Council of Regent. With my experience from Kumasi, I think it was right for me to come and continue what I had already started.

GB: With the rich experience you are bringing on board, what should the student body and the general public expect from regent during your tenure?

NNN: A revolution in technology and innovation. The students should expect that their training would be more of hands-on, direct for employment. It is not going to be just reading the theory.

For instance, the polytechnics are more of hands-on, so that by the time you finish, you should be able to do something, and that is what I think any science and technology institute should aim at; to produce students who can apply whatever theory they learnt in practice.

This shouldn’t be after they have completed, but while they are here, they develop that skill and they get the practical aspect and go work it. I have in mind not only knowing how to use your hands but how to apply the knowledge in your life in establishing businesses. So it will be like having the knowledge through theory, having the hands-on and extending the knowledge to other people.

GB: How is Regent going to distinguish itself from the tag associated with private universities?

NNN: One major problem with private universities is the fact that they are not able to retain their staff who have sufficient experience. Because of that, students come and start with one lecturer and before you know it, it changes hands. So sometimes the knowledge you acquire may not be enough because of the inconsistencies in teaching and so forth.

What I am going to strive to do is to try and make sure that we retain lecturers, qualified ones at that, who will impart the knowledge consistently so by the time students finish, the knowledge is complete and a well-tested one.

Another issue is that some of the private universities have a problem with the equipment needed to facilitate teaching and learning. That is one thing I am going to see to that we have at Regent, to be able to achieve my vision of making this university a technological institution so that students get the practical training.

I am a statistician, I am not a technologist or engineer but the vision I have is towards this, so I go round looking for people who can help achieve my vision. So the products from Regent are definitely going to be different than the products from other universities and will be able to compete with those from the traditional universities.

GB: Cost of education is one of the things limiting a lot of people from realising their potential. How do you think the country can help to reverse the trend?

NNN: The fees in the private universities are comparable to what is paid in the state institutions. Education these days has become expensive because of the cost sharing. Even the government is not able to maintain the scholarships for students.

I think what institutions can do is to find other innovative ways of making money to support teaching and learning and not only passing the entire cost of education on the students and that is what happens.

Even state universities where government pays salaries, all other things are borne by the institutions. So if you want to maintain financial sustainability you need to charge appropriately. For the private universities, it is even worse because the lecturers are being paid by the institutions and who are the ones who pay them? It is the fees of these students.

We have to find means of going away from that single source of funding where we rely on student’s fees to pay for almost everything.

We at Regent are planning to assemble electronic gadgets. We also want to manufacture solar panels locally and from local materials. Once we are able to do that, and we expand our horizon, then profit from such ventures could be used to support infrastructure and other things so the students would be relieved somehow from the burden of paying for everything.

GB: How do you think the widening gap between industry and academia could be bridged?

NNN: It is easy, in fact very easy. Whenever you are developing a programme, you invite the industry. In other words, you develop the programme in collaboration with industry.

After the programme has been developed, you need to have a stakeholder’s forum with industry so they pinpoint to you the strengths they expect students to have. If you sit in your office and you design a programme and think that is what industry wants, you will be in trouble.

GB: Who is Professor Nicholas N. N. Nsowah- Nuamah?

NNN: I am from a typical village called Dunkwa-on-Offin in the Central Region. It was a real village in those days where your mentor was either a Catholic Father or a teacher. I was a trained teacher; I went to the St Augustine’s Training College. I have my Ph.D in Statistics from the Moscow State University in Russia.

I lectured at the University of Ghana and I was also an acting Deputy Government Statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service. In 2010, Professor Nsowah-Nuamah was appointed the Rector of Kumasi Polytechnic where he served till December 2016.