The Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir (Dr.) Samuel Esson Jonah, has urged the university to position itself as an excellent centre for environmental research in the oil industry in the country.
This he said could be achieved when the university begins to forge closer links with the various players in the oil industry stressing that “If we wait they would not come to us, we have to get a good package for the industry since we are closer to them”.
The chancellor made this known during an interaction session with some members of the university’s management during a two-day working visit to campus. He noted that the purpose of the meeting was to acquaint himself with the challenges confronting the university management in the discharge of their duties and also share ideas on how best to find solutions to these challenges.
Opening the discussions, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. D. D. Kuupole, said the core business of the university is research and therefore would be pursued vigorously to impact policy. He said, a fund raising committee has been formed to source for adequate funding to pursue this agenda.
He called for the establishment of a mega laboratory with modern basic equipment to be used by all students in the sciences.
Some of the issues discussed included the need to have both inter and intra faculty collaboration, use of ICT to help improve the status of the international ranking and the need for members of faculty to put their work on the university’s website.
The meeting also discussed pertinent issues such as enhancing collaboration with research institutions like the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and industry so that the University could mobilize funds to support capacity building and developmental projects on campus as well as reaching out to alumni to contribute to the development of the University. .
After the meeting, the Chancellor and his entourage proceeded to inspect some on-going projects of the university. Some of the places visited were the Science Complex Annex, New Administration Complex, Language Centre, the School of Business Building, the Diagnostic Centre and the Clinical Teaching Centre both at the Central Regional Hospital and other facilities of the School of Medical Sciences.
Speaking at the end of the inspection tour, Dr. Sam Jonah indicated that though the challenges were enormous, efforts would be made get to the corporate world to come and support the university to achieve its aim of becoming a university of international repute.
source: ucc.edu.gh
