University administrators urged to be innovative

Members of the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) have been urged to be innovative in managing and administering the country’s higher educational system.

The immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor William Otoo Ellis, who made the call, noted that trends in higher education in recent past had been changing very fast due to factors including increasing student numbers, challenges of inadequate financial resources to provide the requisite physical infrastructural facilities, as well as the emergence of information and communication technology (ICT).

Prof. Ellis, who said this at a two-day Continuous Professional Development Programme in Accra, indicated, among other things, that there was the need for the required relevant knowledge, skill and international exposure to deal with the emerging issues in higher education.

Commendation

The former vice-chancellor commended the leadership of the association for organising the programme to expose its members to some of the new trends in higher education in relation to career development and progression.

The Continuous Professional Development Programme, which was organised in collaboration with the Registrar’s Office, was to equip members with relevant skills to undertake research and to write academic papers as part of the requirement for their career progression.

Four topics were treated at the end of the programme.

They are Fundamentals of Peer-Review of Peer Review Publication, presented by Professor Imoro Braimah, Provost, College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Promoting Knowledge through Conference Presentations, presented by Dr Paul Kwadwo Addo, Senior Assistant Registrar, Institute of Educational Studies; Fundamentals of Writing Effective Memoranda/Position Papers for Policy Change in University Context, presented by Mr Vincent A. Lomotey, Deputy Registrar, College Of Science and the Art of Crafting Memoranda and Position Papers and Guidelines for Submitting same for Consideration, presented by Mrs Eudora Dadson, Ag. Deputy Registrar, Legal and Welfare Division of the Registrar’s Office.

Gratitude

Speaking at the ceremony, the president of the GAUA, Mr Kwame Yeboah Jr, expressed his gratitude to the management of the university for the support it offered to the association to develop the human resource base of the university.

He implored members of the association to take advantage of the programme to improve on their writing skills for purposes of their career progression.

For his part, Mr Vincent Ankomah Lomotey, who stood in for the registrar, urged members to develop a new attitude to enhance their work output to transform higher education in Ghana for socio-economic development.

In his closing remarks, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, lauded the association for organising the programme to build the capacity of its members.

Management

She gave an assurance that the association would continue to support all forms of capacity development programmes for various categories of staff of the university to ensure quality service delivery.

The occasion was used to honour Professor Ellis for his support to the association in diverse ways during his tenure as vice-chancellor of the university from 2010 to 2016.
He was presented with a plaque.