The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, has paid a courtesy call on the Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), Prof. Ernest Aryeetey. The visit was to acquaint herself with the operations of ARUA and to discuss how the University can position itself for deeper collaborations with ARUA.
The University of Ghana is a founding member of ARUA, a network of sixteen (16) leading universities on the Sub-Saharan region, with the aim to enhance research and graduate training in member universities.
In her remarks, Prof. Amfo indicated that her visit was also to capitalise on the University’s affiliation with ARUA to intensify the existing partnership in order to advance UG’s research capacities. She stated that this is in line with her first Key Strategic Objective as Vice-Chancellor, which is to, “reinvigorate impactful research in the (applied) sciences and humanities, resulting in increased research income, exponential growth of research outputs such as publications, improved citations and vibrant community engagements”.
In his response, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, the Secretary-General of ARUA and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, expressed delight at Prof. Amfo’s visit, particularly because the University of Ghana will be hosting the next meeting of Deputy Vice-Chancellors/Pro-Vice-Chancellors of member universities of ARUA in September 2022.
He elaborated on the four (4) key focus areas of ARUA’s interest. These are (i) enhanced research, (ii) graduate support and training (iii) research management and (iv) research advocacy. Prof. Aryeetey noted ARUA’s readiness to support the University’s development in institutional research. He said “ARUA builds capacity of universities through collaboration. We are hoping to work with Management of University of Ghana to establish a Centre of Excellence in the not-so-distant future.”
The Vice-Chancellor later interacted with other staff of ARUA - Mrs. Stella A. Amoa, ARUA Network Manager and former Director of Public Affairs, University of Ghana, Mrs. Ewuraba Addo, ARUA Project Coordinator-UKRI and Ms. Abigail Alloye, Personal Assistant to the Secretary-General/Office Manager.
