UDS 10th Vice Chancellor's Speech

ADDRESS BY THE ACTING VICE-CHANCELLOR, PROFESSOR
KAKU SAGARY NOKOE, AT THE 1OTH CONGREGATION OF
THE UNIVERSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES,
ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2009 AT
THE FORECOURT OF THE LIBRARY BLOCK,
TAMALE CAMPUS

The Honourable Deputy Minister of Education (Representing His Excellency The President)
Honourable Deputy Regional Minister and Ministers of State
Chairmen of University Councils
Vice-Chancellors of Sister Universities
Former Vice-Chancellor of UDS
Executive Secretary, NCTE
Members of UDS Council
Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Registrar of UDS
Registrars of Sister Universities
Former Registrars of UDS
Members of Convocation
Staff of UDS
Chiefs and Elders/Religious Leaders
Members of the Press
Graduands
Distinguished Invited Guests/Ladies and Gentlemen!

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Today marks the Tenth Congregation of the University for Development Studies, and it is with honour and pride that I deliver this address. This report is contained in the Vice Chancellor’s report which has been circulated, and will therefore attempt to summarise in the next 30 minutes. It is with the greatest pleasure that I welcome the Representative of the President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr Joseph Annang, MP and Deputy Minister of Education. We would have wished the presence of His Excellency to grace the occasion as the first sitting President to mark this anniversary with us since the establishment of the University. We are however grateful for the presence of our able Minister. Today is certainly historic for the mere fact that the University is marking its Tenth Congregation, which suggests that a decade of successful congregation ceremonies in the University’s seventeen years’ existence as an autonomous higher institution of learning is being marked. I wish to acknowledge also the presence of the Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University, the Netherlands. We are grateful for his deep friendship with UDS and for his trust in our ability to provide relevant and functional academic training for the benefit of deprived and often forgotten members of the society. Yesterday, for the first time in the history of this University, a public congregation lecture was organised. The speaker was Professor Daniel Ncanyiyana, a renowned medical brain and academician and former Vice-Chancellor, Durban University of Technology, South Africa, and long-term Problem Based Learning (PBL) consultant. I wish to acknowledge his presence here. This historic event was chaired by the foundation Vice-Chancellor of UDS, Professor R.B. Bening, who is here with us today. For us, it was not a mark of coincidence, but rather a calculated design that our first ever congregation lecture was chaired by the first Vice-Chancellor of the University. We acknowledge your presence, Professor R.B. Benning. Quite expectedly, we have, once again, an assembly of some of the main actors in tertiary education in Ghana in our midst here today, to celebrate this occasion with us. We are honoured by the presence of Chairman of University of Cape Coast Council, Vice-Chancellors (University of Ghana- Prof C N Tagoe; University of Education Winneba - Prof A Asabere-Ameyaw), Registrars and Finance Officers of sister universities, representatives of the Executive Secretaries of the National Council for Tertiary Education and Accreditation Board. I welcome you all.

2.0 PROGRESS MADE BY UDS

2.1 Student Enrolment

Honourable Minister, invited guests, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the university has made remarkable strides in its less than two decades’ existence. Starting from a very low intake of 39 students in September 1993, the University’s student population rose to 5,400 by the 2004/2005 academic year. Today, I am happy to announce that in the last four years, our student population has tripled to a figure of 15,019. The students are spread over four functional campuses at Nyankpala, Tamale, Navrongo and Wa. A remarkable feature of our admissions this year is the unprecedented leap in the number of students admitted at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. A total of 6,003 students were admitted into undergraduate programmes this year, representing a 33 per cent increase over last year’s figure of 4,003. For the post-graduate programmes, UDS admitted a total of 170 students this academic year, which is a 143 percent increase over last year’s figure of 76. Admittedly the admission this year was not without the usual problems associated with manual transcription of completed forms into electronic. We apologise for the lapses which led to considerable delays in the release of the list of admitted candidates, and the consequent loss of students to other institutions. We are determined to resolve this problem, by going fully-electronic, from the coming admission period. Details will be announced soon.

2.2 New Academic Programmes

The astronomical growth in the University’s student numbers within the past two years has been a product of the tireless efforts and selfless devotion to duty by the University’s academic staff, and the introduction of relevant and demand-driven academic programmes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, especially in the last two years. Since the 2008/2009 academic year, five new undergraduate programmes and seven new post-graduate programmes have been introduced. The undergraduate programmes include Renewable Natural Resources and Agribusiness at the Nyankpala Campus, Integrated Community Development, Development Planning, and Real Estate and Land Management at the Wa campus and BSc. Nursing in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The Diploma programme is Integrated Management Studies, which is located at the Wa Campus. The postgraduate programmes include Innovation Communication, Biotechnology, Meat Science, Irrigation and Mechanisation, Development Management, Non-Governmental Organisation Management and Rural Development and Environmental Security and Livelihood Change. Other post-graduate programmes that are being developed include Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, and Forensic Science. These programmes, we are hopeful, will start by next academic year once the necessary accreditation processes have been completed.

2.3 New Faculties

Increased staff numbers and enhanced staff capacities through further training have been helpful in our quest to establish more Faculties that will offer more demand-driven academic programmes. This year, two new Faculties have admitted students and are operational. A Faculty of Computational and Developmental Mathematics has been carved out of the Faculty of Applied Science at Navrongo, and a Faculty of Education, Law and Business Studies has been carved out of the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies at Wa.

2.4 Staff Recruitment, Development and Progression

We are systematically building our manpower requirements through recruitment and manpower development. Currently, we have a total of 374, academic staff, made up of two full Professors, eight (8) Associate Professors, 40 Senior Lecturers, 203 lecturers, and 14 Assistant Lecturers, and 107 Tutors. Non-teaching staff in UDS are 706. This figure is made of 54 Senior Members, 137 Senior Staff and 515 Junior Staff. On a very regular and predictable basis, the African Network for Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI) and the Association of African Universities (AAU) have provided support for much needed Professors, through their various Staff Exchange and Capacity Building programmes, to visit and participate in teaching and research in the mathematical science programmes at the Navrongo Campus. The University has an aggressive staff training policy and the support from AAU, ANSTI and others make it possible for us to train a substantial number in-house.

Furthermore, through offer of scholarships from the Government of Ghana, the GETFund, the Commonwealth, The British Council, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Delft University in Netherlands, and other funding agencies, and through other financial and material support, we are providing the avenues and opportunities for our staff to attain Masters and PhD qualifications. We shall not relent on this.

Honourable Minister, Mr Chairman, the university requires that academic staff promote learning and research through relevant publications and community service, and have various periods of appointment to enable these goals to be achieved. As part of quality assurance measures, staff who have been unable to achieve these goals shall be given sufficient notices in the coming weeks to relocate to other professions. Our usual appreciation and allowable hand-shakes shall be demonstrated.

2.5 Collaboration towards capacity Building

Closely linked to our staff development and capacity enhancement plans is our collaboration with Maastricht University and Walter Sisulu University in South Africa. Both institutions have enabled us to build a strong capacity in the Medical school, and will continue with special arrangement for the training of five specialists per year in medical specialisations once the necessary agreements between the Ministry of Health/Ghana Government and the Medical Council/Government of the Republic of South Africa have been finalised.

2.6 Student Exchange Programmes

UDS has had a long standing relationship with the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia in the training of nurse practitioners. After helping UDS to start and consolidate its programme in Nurse Practitioner (call it Physician Assistant), UBC Okanagan campus continues to send its Practitioner students on annual pilgrimage to UDS and northern Ghana to for hands-on knowledge on the management of tropical diseases. Recently, we have received 6 students from the Faculty of Applied Science, Dortmund on TTFPP attachment, while 4 UDS students are currently in the Germany for their first semester studies.

2.7 Zain Africa Inter-Universities Quiz Competition

The University in the past participated in the Zain International Inter-University Quiz competition for the first time and performed creditably last year as one of the top four universities selected to represent Ghanaian Universities in the Competition in Uganda. This year, once again our gallant young students have made it again among the top four. Indeed, at the Ghana tournament, UDS did it in grand style by displaying our well endowed institutions - University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana and University of Mines and Energy, succumbing only to the superior might of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology by a whisker. The UDS team is preparing feverishly for the Competition in Kampala, Uganda, and we are hopeful that they will lift the image of UDS.

3.0 INFRASTRUCTURAL NEEDS

Regrettably, the growth in quality training and the increased student numbers are not matched by adequate and modern infrastructure. This lack of infrastructure has been the basis of derogatory remarks by an academician and politician who had at one time sought his party’s ticket to contest for the high office of the Presidency. It is regrettable that this respectable professor of Morbid Anatomy in another University recently at a Ghana Academy of Science and Arts lecture described UDS as ‘glorified Secondary School’ out of ignorance or sheer mischief. The University will demand apology in due course. Much as infrastructure does not make a university (rather faculty, programmes and quality of graduates do!), it is important that our peculiar infrastructure issues be addressed in a more aggressive manner consistent with the promise by the current government to give it the much needed attention. The inadequacy of infrastructure in UDS is rooted in history, but we are hopeful that it will not become legendary. The first two faculties -- Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Integrated Development Studies – at various times, started on borrowed premises at Tamale, Nyankpala, Navrongo and Wa. Indeed it is only the Tamale Campus, where today’s event is being held, and the new Campus at Bamahu, Wa, that have been designed by the University. Painfully, the University has had to watch helplessly as it tried, almost unsuccessfully, to mould old and inherited structures into modern state-of-the-art facilities. Regrettably, also, the University is paying the price for braving the storm to build completely new structures on two new Campuses at Wa and Tamale. The lack of adequate funds to see through the beautiful modern designs that have been drawn for these two campuses is a nightmarish experience. In spite of this bleak outlook in relation to the problem of lack of infrastructure, some modest additions have been made to the exiting facilities on the various campuses. The University’s new Central Administration Block, located here on the Tamale Campus, was completed and taken over in September this year. We have since migrated our staff to this new Central Administration. The Vice Chancellor bungalow is also ready for occupation. Several ongoing projects including two clinics at Wa and Navrongo, Medical Laboratory block at the Tamale Campus, and two lecture blocks of 1000 capacity each at Wa, a 1000-seater lecture hall and two blocks of eight 2-bedroom flats at the Navrongo campus are all at various stages of completion. Much still needs to be done to get UDS out of the stifling problem of lack of adequate infrastructure. The enhanced number of students at Wa and Navrongo suggests the immediate need for larger lecture rooms and several small tutorial-sized rooms. Increasingly, the need for University-type hostels in our rural locations has become more apparent, and efforts need to be made to address this major concern. In particular, the University looks forward to the sod-cutting ceremony and the construction the 1000-bed hostel at the Tamale Campus (or the equivalent of two 500 bed hostels at Tamale and Navrongo campuses respectively). The University also looks forward to an urgent resolution by the GETFund Board on the status of the GETFund Hotel (which UDS has registered as the UDS International Conference Centre). Our initial intentions to use the hotel to raise much needed IGF for university’s academic work had been misconstrued. Honourable Minister, in addition to our physical infrastructural needs it may be said politely that UDS campuses deserve better road networks that are well-lit and tarred. I do not think we need to wait for Cape-Three-Points oil to tar our roads – if for nothing at all, to ensure longevity of human life, electronic and scientific equipments through reduction in dust pollution levels.

4.0 SEED MONEY AT LAST

I am happy to announce that there is some huge respite, at last. The entire University community received with great joy, the news of the kind gesture of His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills to offer the much needed seed money to UDS under the President’s Endowment Fund Initiative. [Ha, sika no wo hene? – Translated as ‘where is the money’ after a popular mobile company advert]. We are waiting for the release of the money, and there are clear signals that soon part of these much-needed and much-awaited funds will be released to the University. The thirst for a lump sum to UDS as seed money has been great; the anticipation for an enhanced amount is even greater.

5.0 UDS MEDICAL SCHOOL

Mr Chairman, the University’s medical programme is progressing steadily. There is now an end to the yearly ritual of sending our medical students (and the accompanying invoices/payments) to the University of Ghana Medical School and the School of Medical Sciences at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for clinical training. We have started clinical training of our medical students at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. Two batches of students being trained in the traditional medical approach are currently undergoing the clinical training at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The School is in its third year of implementation of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) medical training programme, and must be put on record as the first institution in West Africa to start the innovative PBL. To fill up the gap that was created last year by our inability to admit students for the first year, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SHMS) of UDS admitted another group of 26 candidates, who hold first degrees in the sciences, into PBL1 level, which is the second year of the PBL programme. The traditional training of medical students will, in the next few years, be completely phased out. I can confirm that the PBL training approach is more in tune with the University’s community-based problem-solving pedagogic approach to teaching and learning.

6.0 APPRECIATION OF SUPPORT AND VISITS OF COLLABORATORS

Mr Chairman, I wish to acknowledge the goodwill and support that the University has been receiving from institutions, individuals, organisations and communities for the past few years, but most especially within the past year. At various times within the year, the University Management met a Spanish Team, a representative of the United Nations Population Fund, the Minister of North Rine Wesphalia State in Germany, the Dapkema, a team from GETFund, and a group of Students from the Morehouse Pan Africa Global Experience.

The Spanish Team was in UDS to acquaint itself with how the Special Science Laboratories at the Nyankpala, Navrongo and Wa Campuses are functioning. During the visit of the Minister of Wesphalia, Germany, a possible area for investment in Northern Ghana by the North Rine Wesphalia State was discussed and evaluated. Indeed, UDS will be proud to see an investment, borne out of the UDS-Wesphalia collaboration benefiting the communities in northern Ghana. We continue to be an avowed friend of the poor and deprived members of the Ghanaian society.

7.0 SUPPORT FROM BENEFICIARIES

The University wishes to pay tribute to the late Francis Poku of Poku Transport fame, for instituting the Poku Transport Endowment Fund for UDS. Since the Fund was launched ten years ago, 29 deserving students in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Faculty of Agriculture have received monetary support on a one-off basis. A consequence of this Endowment Fund is a stiff and healthy academic competition among the students in the SMHS and the Faculty of Agriculture, as the students strive to produce excellent performance that can put them in the stead for the award. The concomitant result has been high academic performance of the students in the two Faculties. We are appealing to philanthropists from all over the country to emulate the shining example of the visionary Francis Poku.

As we wish to retain our old friends so do we strive to make new ones. This year we have received support from corporate bodies towards our preparation for this Congregation. Some of these include the Agricultural Development Bank, National Investment Bank, Zenith Bank, Intercontinental Bank and Total Supplies respectively towards the production of the Congregation Handbook.

8.0 SEARCH FOR A VICE-CHANCELLOR

Mr Chairman, Honourable Minister, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, UDS is making tremendous progress (there is no doubt about this), and it is important that this progress is sustained. The university at all times needs quality leadership that will drive the collective efforts of staff and students towards the attainment of the University’s vision. It is in this light that I wish to advise that as the University strives to appoint a substantive Vice-Chancellor, due diligence be exercised. As a national institution and a national asset, it is the hope of all that quality will not be sacrificed for any other considerations. The University has come a long way. An accomplished academician, visionary leader, team player, and above all an astute manager is the calibre of person needed to drive the University’s mandate. I trust that in the next few months, an accomplished leader and achiever will be delivered to take over the headship of this institution: an institution that is so dear to our hearts, and one that is so cherished by the deprived and disadvantaged. As we leave the institution, having attained the statutory age for serving in the public service, we can only assure the incoming Vice Chancellor and Management Team of our continued support and as mouthpieces of UDS wherever we will find ourselves.

9.0. CONTRIBUTION TO DEBATE ON UPCOMING UNIVERSITIES IN BA and VR

Honourable Minister, permit me to make few remarks on issues relating to aspects of the NDC manifesto and agenda for government. I had earlier indicated that UDS is a national asset that we must all preserve, enhance and share. Similarly the proposed University on natural resources to be sited in Brong Ahafo region must not be seen as a university OF or university FOR Brong Ahafo. It must be seen as a national institution that should indeed benefit from the surrounding and even more endowed natural resource regions of Western and Ashanti. Following the strategy for UDS, campuses in Western and Ashanti should not be discounted. Similarly, in the interest of national cohesion, the proposed university in Volta Region must be free of ethnic considerations in all aspects of planning and recruitment of staff and admission of students. De-bordernisation of secondary schools and automated admissions have already created problems relating to national identity which need not be cemented with regional-based universities.

10.0. STATISTICS FOR TENTH CONGREGATION

This year a total of 1,471 graduands, spread over four faculties have successfully passed all the requirements for the award of degrees. Some of these successful candidates are present here for this ceremony. Out of the figure, 88 are receiving certificates for Diploma programmes, 1,379 have graduated with Bachelor degrees and four (4) with Masters’ degrees. For the degree graduands, I am happy to announce that twenty seven (27) had demonstrated excellent performance throughout their studies, and this has earned them First Class degrees. Three hundred and sixty three (363) attained Second Class (Upper Division), 922 earned Second Class (Lower Division), and 59 graduands got Third Class degrees.

11.0. GRADUANDS

Now a word with the graduands! You are no doubt filled with joy as you prepare to be bestowed this great honour. Your parents, some of who are present here, should be equally elated and proud of your achievement. Indeed, there is every cause for you to be blissful. You fought a good and worthwhile academic battle, and in the end you won. The time to celebrate this success is now. And as you do so, I am very sure that you will admit, even if not openly, that UDS has changed your life positively. You have gone through the strenuous and rigorous training that UDS is acclaimed for, and you are indeed a better person now than you were when you went into an academic relationship with UDS, The yearly eight (8) weeks stay in the rural communities has certainly changed your outlook to life. You have seen at first hand the extreme deprivation and stark poverty in large parts of the country. But there is something else you would have learnt: and that is, the rural people are experts also in their own right. They know their conditions better than any development expert or change agent, and they have knowledge; relevant traditional knowledge that can be moulded and adapted for their own benefit. I believe that you have all been humbled by this knowledge, and we expect that wherever you may be after this ceremony, you will not forget the rural people, with whom you have a covenant.

A word of advice is that you will be evaluated by society not just by the academic qualification you have gained, but also by your personal character, your sense of responsibility, your moral character, and your value to your community and the entire Ghanaian society. We have given you the requisite academic and character training, we have helped to mould your lives, and we have added value to your worth, we have no doubt therefore that you will be useful to your community and to your country. We expect you to be our ambassadors in the wider and wilder world, and wish you good luck.

Please do not turn your backs to UDS too soon. I advise that you become active members of the UDS Alumni, and through this, contribute to the development of UDS any your nation.

11.0. CONCLUSION

UDS is developing very rapidly. It is marching on triumphantly, in spite of scanty resources. The will of the staff and students to march on has become legendary. Unflinching commitment of its staff to work harder and to accept new challenges has been the secret of our success story. The critics and sceptics, when UDS was being established and during its formative years, I believe, have eaten their words, and those who are defiant will soon admit that UDS has been a huge success in the experiment of higher education in Ghana. It is becoming more and more appealing to the academic community, locally and internationally and to the business community as they strive for UDS products.

With the type of support pledged by His Excellency the President and the commitment of GETFund to UDS, the sky can only be the beginning, not the limit. UDS will live up to its expectation and would surely be a force to reckon with in the coming years.

I thank you for being present at our ceremony and for your attention.

Prof Kaku Sagary Nokoe, PhD
Acting Vice-Chancellor