President Akufo-Addo together with Joseph Osei Owusu (right), First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (2nd from left), Vice-Chancellor, University of Ghana and Lydia Seyram Alhassan (left), MP for Ayawaso West Wuogon after cutting the 75th anniversary cake
Government has given its blessings to plans by leadership of the University of Ghana (UG) to position the institution to become a research-intensive hub.
President Akufo-Addo recognised the fact that there is worldwide recognition for the excellence of the university’s faculty and students and for the professional successes chalked by her alumni both at home and abroad, and that over the years, the university has lived up to its mission of developing world-class human resources and capabilities to meet the country’s development needs and global challenges.
Apart from that, he said “the university continues to be the centre of many scientific and technological innovations. The diversity of this research efforts and output in various disciplines, including Social Sciences, Law, Natural Sciences, Medicine, Agriculture, Environment, and Energy, have been internationally acclaimed.”
This was during the university’s 75th anniversary celebration at its main campus in Legon.
It was for this reason he said “my government fully supports and shares in your vision to become a research-intensive university, and we will do all in our power to help you realise it.”
The President therefore asked the University of Ghana and all tertiary institutions in the country “to find innovative and effective ways of linking up with industry and the corporate world to engage in quality strategic research targeted at finding practical solutions to real life challenges of our society and thereby help actualise research findings to the benefit of our country and its citizens.”
He pledged to contribute to the 75th anniversary legacy project announced by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, which is expected to be built on the university campus.
University of Ghana
The University of Ghana is celebrating its 75th anniversary under the theme “Nurturing Resilience; adopting technology, embracing humanism”. The year-long anniversary is aimed at celebrating the university’s achievements and perseverance through years of unprecedented change.
The theme was borne out of the vision of the Vice-Chancellor, which also takes its direction from the university’s vision, and from the multiple and rapid changes occurring in Africa and our global world today, especially in higher education.
The University of Ghana claims numerous achievements in research; teaching and learning; and community engagement and service locally and globally over the past 75 years.
These are a testament to the university’s creativity, innovation as well as its ability to withstand change and thrive despite local and global challenges in the higher education sector.
Recently, the university was ranked Ghana’s highest tertiary institution by the Alper-Doger (AD) Scientific Index 2022 Version 2 with more than 270 scientists from the university appearing in the top 1,000 scientists featured.
This follows from the Webometrics ranking of the University of Ghana as first in Ghana, 11th in sub-Saharan Africa and 1,121 in the world – out of 31,000 higher education institutions from more than 200 countries earlier this year.
Furthermore, in its 2022 ranking, the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, which is one of the three most-widely read university rankings in the world and receives approval from the International Ranking Expert Group (IREG), classified the University of Ghana among the top 20 universities in Africa, the only West African university to be so classified.
Over the years, the University of Ghana has built a reputation as an academically strong institution, making it one of the preferred choices for academics, researchers, and students on the continent.
On October 26, 2021, the University of Ghana inducted Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo into office, as its 13th and first female Vice-Chancellor. During the ceremony, she shared her vision to “create a culture that promotes research, teaching and learning, administrative processes and extension activities driven by technology and anchored in humanism”.
The vision of the Vice-Chancellor as shared by her during her investiture, supports the achievement of the university’s overall vision of becoming a “world-class research-intensive university”.
The ideals contained in her vision have guided the implementation of key activities in the university till date, including the launch of the ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Programme for Enhancing the UG Student Experience through Digitalisation’.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential