The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu in a group photograph with the delegation from AQAS and WACCI
A team of appointed members from the Agency for Quality Assurance through Accreditation of study programmes (AQAS e.V) has paid a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu. The team was accompanied by the Director of the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and some of his senior administrative staff.
Having been selected as one of the 15 Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) by the World Bank, WACCI is required to seek international accreditation. It is in this regard, that the Centre called on AQAS e.V., an independent German non-profit organization dedicated to the accreditation of higher education institutions to meet this requirement. As part of the accreditation process, the team from AQAS e.V. paid a site visit to the University and called on the Vice-Chancellor.
Welcoming the team, the Vice-Chancellor was delighted to have them visit the University and wished them a pleasant stay in the country. Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu stated that the Centre operated semi-autonomously under the College of Basic and Applied Sciences. He mentioned that WACCI complies with academic regulations like other Centres in the University. With regards to managing funds, he indicated that the Centre was given some independence with less financial scrutiny. He charged the Director of the Centre, Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah to use the semi-autonomous nature of the Centre to secure funds and added that the University would be willing to assist the Centre financially if need be. Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu in his closing remarks, charged WACCI to go beyond the borders of Africa to become a World Class crop development institute where students from universities worldwide could come for their Post-Doctoral Research.
The Director of WACCI, in a response to some questions from the team indicated that WACCI was established in 2007 with funding from the Alliance for a Green Africa as a 10-year project. He added that as part of making the Centre sustainable, it was fully absorbed into the University which meant that all the project staff of the Centre were now permanent staff of the University. The team further inquired about the University’s Academic Quality Assurance mechanisms to guarantee quality education both at the level of the Centre and the University.
Director of WACCI, Prof. Eric Yirenkyi Danquah
After the interactions, the Director of AQAS e.V., Mrs. Doris Hermann made a presentation to the Vice-Chancellor.
Mrs. Doris Hermann making a presentation to the Vice-Chancellor
Other members of the team from AQAS e.V. were Michael Kruse, University of Hohenheim; Prof. Robert Hanseh, Technical University of Braunschweig, Institute for Plant Biotechnology; Dr. Victor Afari-Sefa, Regional Director for World Vegetable Centres West and Central African Region; Dr. Dorothee Groeger, Consultant AQAS e.V. and Mr. Jorge Moreno Herrero, a PhD student at University of Mainz.
The team from WACCI that accompanied the agency were Prof. Kwadwo Ofori, Associate Director for Academic and Student Affairs and Dr. John Elebu, Coordinator, Research Programmes, Francophone West Africa. Other University officials present were Prof. Kwame Offei, Pro-Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs and Prof. Boniface Kayang, Head of Department Animal Science and Acting Dean of the School of Agriculture.
