GCTU has taken significant strides in expanding its global footprint through a strategic partnership meeting with representatives from Vaal University of Technology (VUT), in South Africa, on October 30, 2025, at the VC’s conference room.
The strategic meeting seeks to enhance research opportunities, staff, faculty, and students exchange programmes and promote joint academic innovations between the two institutions.
In his remarks, the Dean of SGSR and Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Malcalm, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, extended a warm welcome to the VUT representatives. He provided insights into GCTU’s transition from a private to a public institution, stressing that GCTU is one of the fastest-growing universities in Ghana. He noted that GCTU attained its public status in 2020 by an Act of Parliament to run ICT programmes specializing in IT-related fields, computer science, engineering and business. Prof. Malcalm further added that GCTU has three faculties and a student population of over 12,000, with the Faculty of Computing and Information Systems (FOCIS) being the largest. According to him, GCTU adopts a transnational education model, offering programmes in collaboration with other foreign universities.
In his response, the Director of Internationalization at VUT, Mr. V.G.F. Kungune, who led the delegation, expressed excitement about the brief history of GCTU. “Thank you for the overview of the university; it’s been quite insightful. I must say, I am impressed by the progress GCTU is making,” he remarked. Mr. Kungune noted that the purpose of the visit was to initiate discussions on potential collaboration and explore ways to create and sustain meaningful partnerships between VUT and GCTU. He then provided an overview of higher education in South Africa, noting that VUT offers 3-year diplomas, advanced diplomas, postgraduate diplomas, master’s degrees, and PhDs across four faculties. He reported that VUT, with a student population of 21,000, was established in 1960 as a technical college and became a fully-fledged university in 2007, following the restructuring and mergers in South Africa’s higher education sector. Mr. Kungune emphasized that VUT focuses on science, technology, innovation and research, serving as a vital link between academia and industry and incubating developments from idea to prototype.
It was agreed that potential collaboration will focus on the following key areas:
- Academic projects
- Joint research
- Staff and student exchange programmes
- Short-stay programmes for each institution
- Curriculum exchange
- Scholarship opportunities
- Joint examiners
- Joint supervision
The meeting concluded with an agreement to establish a joint team to drive implementation, define the framework, outline timelines, and determine the process to commence the partnership.
