University of Ghana increases grant to researchers

The University of Ghana (UG) has since the beginning of the 2018/2019 academic year approved about GH¢192.68 million ($35.8 million) in grants to 81 researchers.

The increament is a significant improvement over the GH¢20.45 million ($3.8 million) approved as grants to researchers in the 2015/2016 academic year.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs of the university, Professor Kwame Offei, said the increase in grants had helped to improve the university’s research profile.
He made this known at the 2019 graduation ceremony of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences of the UG in Accra last Friday.

Institutional systems

Prof. Offei said the management of the university, with support from its council, had resolved to build long-term institutional systems and structures that would usher the UG into a prosperous future.

In that regard, he said its management had rolled out a fiscal discipline initiative to ensure that the university’s finances were prudently managed.

“This initiative seeks to free fiscal space and make funds available to undertake critical development projects in line with the university’s plan to enhance the mobilisation and management of resources,” he stated.

Prof. Offei said the university had made some savings since the introduction of its financial reforms.

“The statement of financial performance of the university for the 2018/2019 academic year shows that out of a budgeted expenditure for other operating expenses in the sum of GH¢213 million, the actual expenditure was approximately GH¢131 million, indicating a saving of about 38 per cent,” he added.

Graduation ceremony

A total of 929 students who pursued varied graduate and undergraduate programmes at the College of Basic and Applied Sciences graduated.

The graduates included those who pusued Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) inAgribusiness, Animal Science, Applied Agricultural Economics and Policy, Chemistry, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Fisheries Science.

Others were graduates of Master of Philosophy in Actuarial Science, Applied Nuclear Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, Crop and Computer Sciences.

The rest pusued Bachelor of Science programmes in Biology and Conservation Science, Marine and Fisheries Science, Nutrition and Food Science, Biochemistry Cell and Molecular Biology and Animal Science.

Advice

Prof. Offei admonished the graduates to uphold the values of the university which include respect, commitment, integrity and loyalty.

The Vice President and Country Manager of Kosmos Energy Ghana, Mr Joe K. Mensah, underscored the need for the graduates to strive to build work experience and exposure since the academic work alone would not guarantee them success.

One of the four valedictorians at the July 2019 congregation, Ms Michelle Martha Ayo Segla, a Beninois, urged her colleagues, particularly Francophone students, not to let language be a barrier to their quest to acquire knowledge.