2019 Annual Registrar’s Seminar Held

Group picture of participants after the event 

The 2019 Annual Registrar’s Seminar for administrative/professional senior members and selected senior and junior staff has taken place at the Great Hall on the theme, “Technology in Higher Education”.  Over 200 participants attended the seminar.

The two-day seminar held on 4th and 5th July 2019 discussed and recommended the use of technology in university administration and management.

Delivering the keynote address Mr. Chikodi Onyemerela, Director, Programmes and Partnerships, British Council, Ghana indicated that technology has redefined the way educational institutions function as it is used as the main infrastructure to support teaching and administrative processes in universities. He asserted that the role of IT in education was at the point of no return and reiterated the need for universities to position themselves to embrace the change if they intended to stay relevant.

As a means of using technology to improve the administrative processes of the University, Mr. Chikodi Onyemerela called for the integration of various technologies and systems to aid in the effective discharge of duties. Mr. Onyemerela further urged the University to identify the specific roles technology plays in enhancing research, learning and the administrative processes of the University and integrate emerging technologies into its policies and programmes. He further noted that the success of technological adoption depends on sound financial and pedagogical planning and extensive application of technology and called for mindsets and skill set that are adaptive to change.

Earlier, the host of the Seminar and Registrar of the University of Ghana, Mrs. Mercy Haizel-Ashia in her welcome address recollected the various themes the seminar had deliberated on since its inception in 2012. She indicated that the seminar serves as a platform for members to learn and work together to promote the growth and development of the University. She further challenged colleague senior members to leverage on technology to remain relevant as universities across the globe are finding innovative and strategic ways in addressing issues of funding, change in students’ needs and expectations, dynamic job market requirements and fierce competition from public and private universities.

 

Day 1

The session which was made up of statements and group discussions as well as presentations was moderated by Mr. Benjamin Cobblah, an IT System Administrator and Mr. Alexander Bankole Williams, Principal Administrative Assistant, Assistive Technology Unit, University of Ghana Computing System (UGCS).

The first presentation on What Higher Education Managers should know; was delivered by Mr. Emmanuel Baidoo, College Secretary, College of Basic and Applied Sciences. Mr. Baidoo gave a brief overview of the history of higher education in Ghana and recounted that the antecedent of higher education in Ghana dates back to the early 1930s. He underscored the need to equip university managers with the requisite knowledge and attitudinal change to enable them cope with the changing environment and adopt strategies to mitigate challenges.

Speaking on Leveraging Digitised and Electronic Records Management, Mr. Barfi-Adomako, Principal Systems Analyst (UGCS) highlighted the existing repositories of the University. He noted that the Universities could lose valuable documents and information due to fire, poor management, decay and natural disasters. He therefore urged the University to provide training for staff, build core skills to support both frontend & backend operations, improve publicity, develop policies and guidelines and undertake mass digitization of documents and records across University of Ghana campuses on effective digitization and electronic records management projects.

Topics  discussed  and presented by the various groups included customer care and service delivery using Technology, Using Technology to integrate  processes, reducing cost and limiting waste, security and confidentiality in the use of technology and adapting to technology to speed up internal processes and dependability of technology.

 

Day 2

Moderating the second day’s session was Ms. Empi Baryeh, Assistant Registrar, Academic Affairs Unit of the College of Health Sciences in charge of Teaching and Examinations.

Mr. Lucas Chigabatia, Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO), delivered an address on the Security and Cost Implications in the use of Technology in University Administration and noted that although data was the new gold, it was associated with risks and costs. These risks according to Mr. Chigabatia included loss of files and data resulting from sharing passwords and identities. The high costs involved, he noted, was due to costly IT infrastructure, bandwidth, license and qualified personnel needed for efficient utilization of technology. To derive maximum value, Mr. Chigabatia underscored the need for all users to prudently deployed technology. Later, there was a demonstration of how technology could be used to get information to aid decision making.

The seminar concluded with case studies on the use of technology from Dr. Gloria Ansa, a Senior Medical Officer at the University Hospital; Mr. Derrick Bamba Boateng, Accountant, Finance Directorate; Mrs. Diana Owusu Antwi, Research Development Officer, Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID) and Mr. Alfred Quartey, Head, Institutional Research and Planning Office (IRPO). From their presentations it was obvious that Technology links processes and makes work faster and easier.

                          

 

Please click to see pictures of the seminar 

Please click to access the programme