Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, continued her familiarisation visit to UG’s learning Centres. Following a visit to the Bolgatanga Learning Centre the previous day, the Vice-Chancellor together with other Senior Officials inspected facilities at the Tamale Learning Centre and interacted with the Centre Coordinator and staff.
Centre Coordinator welcoming the Vice-Chancellor and team to the Tamale Learning Centre
Prof. Amfo expressed her excitement about the potential of the Centre, which she believes, will ease the process of getting GTEC to accredit the Centre as a City Campus of the University of Ghana. She added that as the University seeks to project its graduate programmes, Management had tasked some officials, led by the Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Justice N. Bawole, to see how best UG can roll out its graduate courses on the Distance Education (DE) programme.
“Once the Centre is upgraded to a City Campus, it will allow for more than just running the undergraduate and diploma programmes”, she said.
“Management would re-engage the Deans of the School of Nursing and Midwifery and the School of Continuing and Distance Education, as well as the Provost of the College of Education to bring the Nursing programme back on board in a way that is equitable and jointly owned.”
In line with the strategy to digitalise communication, the Vice-Chancellor, encouraged the Centre to employ emails in its communication. She tasked the College Secretary of the College of Education to develop Standard Operating Procedures on communication for the Learning Centres, to guide them on communicating effectively with the College and receiving feedback on requests made.
Prof. Amfo in a meeting with staff of the Tamale Learning Centre
The College Human Resource Officer, was also tasked to work with the Finance and Logistics Directorates to organise an information training session for the University’s Learning Centres, focusing on HR issues, procurement and finance processes. This would ensure compliance and efficiency.
The Vice-Chancellor announced that the University on July 17, 2024, will be launching its new strategic plan, containing five strategic priorities.
She mentioned that the priority area on transformative student experience, seeks to ensure the creation of an environment that promotes effective learning irrespective of geographical location. She admonished the Learning Centres to take advantage of their small student numbers and provide personalised support to the students.
Prof. Amfo urged the Centre to link up with the College to be connected with all the student support services on campus, such as those provided by the Careers
and Counselling Centre and Students Financial Aid Office. She encouraged them to extend the use of the video conferencing facility beyond teaching and learning to support services.
In throwing more light on another priority area, which is impactful research, Prof. Amfo stated that thankfully, the Provost of the College of Education is passionate about research and has, since his appointment, brought a lot of dynamism as far as research is concerned. She entreated the Provost to find a way of engaging all the Co-ordinators and provide them the needed direction so that they can balance their academic and administrative work to earn them promotion.
The third priority area, the Vice-Chancellor noted, has to do with commitment to faculty and staff. She urged the staff to be committed to the work, but at the same time, take some time off work to rest to be able to rejuvenate.
On the fourth priority area, which is engagement and partnerships, she admonished the Learning Centre to explore possible collaborators and partners, stating that there are various corporate institutions such as banks, insurance companies, etc. that are willing to collaborate. She also spoke on the possibility of linking up with units on the Legon Campus which run short courses and see how best such units can assist them to be able to partner with these institutions in their respective regions to organise such courses for them. This she said, would increase the University’s visibility and also generate revenue.
Prof. Amfo and teaming inspecting some facilities at the Learning Centre
In explaining the fifth strategic priority which is sustainable resource mobilisation, Prof. Amfo urged the Centre to first identify the source of funds before making plans to procure goods and services.
In her closing remarks, the Vice-Chancellor promised to revisit the Centre together with the Provost to assess progress after their initial visit.
She also expressed appreciation for the work done by the staff of the Centre and was impressed by how most of them were dressed in the UG @ 75 cloth, indicating their connection to the University, irrespective of the geographical location.
