SEED Global Education Visits GCTU for collaboration in STEM education
GCTU welcomed a team of four American Universities last week for engagements with Management, Faculty and the student body. The visit which took place on Friday, 24th March, 2023 saw the four institutions, namely Boston University, Drexel University, George Washington University, and New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, present various opportunities for collaboration in STEM education at Postgraduate level. The visit was facilitated by SEED Global Education.
The visit kicked off with a Management engagement session which was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa. During this relatively brief meeting, the visiting institutions were given an opportunity to introduce themselves, their Universities and some of the exciting opportunities on offer in terms of partnership and collaboration.
Present at the meeting were a host of Management representatives including the Registrar, Mr. Emmanuel Baidoo, the Director of Finance, Mr. Emmanuel Apraku, the Ag. Director of Internal Audit, Mr. Kennedy Oppong Fosu, the Ag. Director of University Relations, Dr. Nusrat-Jahan Abubakar, the Ag. Dean of the Office of Student Affairs, Dr. Michael Nana Owusu-Akomeah, and, Prof. George Amoako, the Director of the Office of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (ORIC). The Faculty were also represented by the Dean of Engineering, Prof. Stephen Asunka, and the Dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Systems (FOCIS), Prof. Kester Quist-Aphetsi.
The coordinators of the visit, SEED Global Education, were also on hand to provide some background regarding their motivation for coming to Ghana, primarily due to their intention to capitalize on Ghanaian students’ increased interest in continuing their postgraduate education in the United States.
Represented by the Co-Founder, Sanjay Dhingra, and the Regional Director for Africa, Jojo Quansah, the SEED Global team reiterated their hope that the interaction would foster a host of progressive, long-term collaborations which would further solidify the relationship between Ghana and the United States, and at the same time, enhance GCTU’s reputation as a STEM-based centre of education. Specifically, Mr. Dhingra asserted, “Ghana is the first port of call for us in Africa because we have heard so many good things about the country, and we have also observed a massive influx of Ghanaian students who want to study in America”.
Following on from the opening part of the meeting, the representatives from the partner Universities unanimously alluded to the influx of interest and direct applications from potential students in Ghana. They intimated that they were hopeful that they could find ways to turn the interest and increased applications into enrolments in the near future.
The Vice-Chancellor in turn communicated his appreciation to the visiting institutions for choosing to potentially collaborate with GCTU, and also alluded to the University’s prime suitability for partnerships with the American Universities. Prof Afoakwa stated, “You are in the right place because 80% of our students are enrolled in Engineering and Computing programmes. GCTU is open for partnerships and because of our mandate, which also says that we are an Entrepreneurial and Enterprise University, we want to continue to invest in such collaborations”
Prof. Afoakwa spoke of the institution’s intention to align with the Government’s agenda of advancing the development of ICT and technology experts, affirming his belief that collaborations with the visiting institutions would go a long way towards placing GCTU at the center of the aforementioned agenda by equipping the institution to play a key role in “training a skilled workforce that would be able to fill the areas of high need in the country”.
Prof. Kester Quist-Aphetsi, the Dean of FOCIS, emphasized the need to enter in both academic and research collaborations. He pointed to the fact that FOCIS had developed their curriculum to be very strong and that it had been benchmarked to meet global standards in order to ensure that it continued to reflect the highest quality. He stated, “Many of our students are working for global corporations such as Microsoft, and a lot of them are also developing some ground-breaking technologies”.
Prof. Stephen Asunka, the Dean of Engineering, buttressed the visiting delegation’s observation regarding the major interest in American study opportunities, stating, “A lot of our students are really keen to study in the United States, mostly because they want to benefit from the high standards and the excellent resources which are available”. He added that he believed it would also be prudent to investigate the possibility of including faculty in some of these proposed collaboration agreements, providing them with the opportunity to build their capacity through trainings and other exchange programmes in the United States.
The Ag. Dean of the Office of Student Affairs, Dr. Akomeah, also took the opportunity to welcome the delegation and shared his anticipation at further discussions with the institutions to further explore the massive potential for collaboration. The Registrar, Mr. Emmanuel Baidoo, rounded up the discussion by suggesting that it would be also important for Administrators to be considered in these potential collaborations, specifying that capacity-building programmes in partnership with the visiting institutions would present an excellent opportunity for GCTU’s administrative staff to enhance their skills and gain in-depth insights into some contemporary and emerging administrative process.
The Vice-Chancellor brought an end to the meeting by once again thanking the delegation for visiting GCTU, and echoing his hope that this would be the beginning of many years of long and fruitful partnerships with the various institutions.
Immediately after the Management interaction, the visiting delegation headed to the Florence Onny Auditorium for the second part of the engagement with the student body. During this very interactive and informative session, the representatives from the Universities provided specific details regarding the various programmes, exchange opportunities, scholarships and application processes, even giving 100% application fee waivers to all those who attended. The students were certainly enthused by the opportunities, as evidenced by the massive turnout and keen participation in the panel discussion with the delegation and the Deans of the Engineering and Computing and Information Systems Faculties.
All in all, the visit, albeit brief, proved to be highly successful and productive, and without a doubt, it uncovered major potential for the University to benefit from some excellent collaboration opportunities which would go a long way to further our mandate and enhance our growing reputation as the national center of ICT excellence!
LIST OF VISITING DELEGATION MEMBERS
- Sanjay Dhingra-Co-Founder, Seed Global Education
- Jojo Quansah-Africa Regional Director, Seed Global Education
- Mark Khan- Director of Master’s Marketing & Enrollment, Boston University
- Guadalupe Rodriguez-Assistant Director, Master’s Admission, Recruitment & Financial Aid, Boston University
- Jacob Reckford-Associate Director of International Recruitment & Admissions-Drexel University
- Katherine Bain Hugins-Associate Director, Admissions & International Partnerships-George Washington University
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Carrie Christine Bowling-Senior Assistant Director, Graduate Marketing & Recruitment-New York University Tandon School of Engineering
