UEW Governing Council sets up 8-member committee - In search of new Vice-Chancellor

The Governing Council of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has set up an eight-member committee to search for a suitable candidate to occupy the position of the Vice-Chancellor, the Council Chairman, Prof. Obeng Mireku, has disclosed.

According to him, the current “industrious” Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Fr Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni, would be retiring at the end of September 2021, thereby rendering the position vacant from October 1, 2021.

Virtual congregation

He disclosed this while addressing the second session of the 25th virtual congregation of the university at the Jophus Anamuah-Mensah Conference Centre last Friday.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony was only attended by Doctor of Philosophy degree graduands and first class undergraduate students.

Out of a total of 10,000 students, 1,288 graduated with postgraduate degrees; 6,120 with first degrees and 2,592 with diplomas from the Institute of Distance and e-Learning (IDeL).

The committee is chaired by Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). Other members are Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, Former Vice-Chancellor of the University ofCape Coast; Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES); Ms Irene Osei Bonsu, Council Member; Prof. Mohammed Salifu, Director-General, Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Council Member; Prof.

George Kankam, and Prof. Francis Owusu-Mensah, both representatives of the Academic Board, with the university’s Registrar, Mr Paul Osei-Barima, serving as secretary to the committee.

He reiterated his plea for all relevant stakeholders to cooperate with the search committee to make the recruitment exercise successful, noting, “I wish to admonish all relevant stakeholders to play their respective roles towards the selection of a suitable candidate to occupy the position.”

Fix the country agenda

Adding his voice to the recent social media campaign dubbed “Fix the Country”, Prof. Mireku reminded Ghanaians that it would take collective efforts to improve conditions in the country for the benefit of all.

“I admit that while the government has a major role to play in transforming the country, it cannot happen without the participation and contribution of all Ghanaians,” adding that “we can obviously fix the country if we all work together as nation builders,” he said.

He further appealed to the government to, as a matter of urgency, address the industrial action by the Senior Staff Association, Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) and the looming strike action by the Ghana University Administrators (GAUA) if the Minister of Finance went ahead with the decision to stop the payment of certain allowances to its members.

“I am calling on the Vice-Chancellors’ Ghana, to as a matter of urgency, intervene to avert any disruption to the academic calendar of public universities,” Prof. Mireku stated.

Some achievements

Speaking at the event, the Vice-Chancellor, Rev. Fr Afful-Broni, indicated that following the university’s strategic objective to expand graduate studies, promote quality research output and enhance academic standards, the university had received approval to procure a plagiarism tracker.

“This timely intervention by the university is to further secure the quality of research work produced by both students and staff,” he said.

Rev. Fr Afful-Broni added that the Academic Board had approved the proposal to upgrade the IDeL into a college to enable it to expand and roll out additional programmes to cater for the training of more professionals in the country.

He stressed that IDeL was in the process of setting up a study centre at the Ghana Military Academy and Training School, Accra to train officers for their professional and personal development.

Take advantage of ICT

The Vice-Chancellor entreated the graduates to take advantage of information and communications technology (ICT) for continuous learning and skills improvement because it was the most effective trend that would help them broaden their knowledge.

He further urged them to be worthy ambassadors of the university to bring significant changes in their lives and the society as a whole, saying, “I challenge you to be adventurous and dare to create your own jobs even if small to make meaningful contributions to national development”.