Legon, University of South Florida sign agreement

THE University of Ghana, Legon has entered into an agreement with the University of South Florida (USF) in the United States of America to strengthen international education and research experiences for both faculty and students.
The areas of collaboration include graduate and faculty training and student exchange programmes.
The primary purpose of this agreement is to provide a general basis within which specific co-operative activities of academic and cultural nature may be implemented involving faculty and students from both institutions.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that sets forth the terms and conditions of the agreement, was signed at a ceremony at the university on Monday.
The agreement was signed on behalf of the University of Ghana by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe and on behalf of the USF by Mrs Linda M. Whiterford, an Associate Vice President for Global Strategies.
Prof. Tagoe said a key area of interest to the university was graduate training for the purposes of developing faculties, saying that the issue of faculty development was a major problem, and the only way to keep faculties was to ensure that there were enough funds for training, considering the increasing population of students.
The university require 1,000 additional faculties to balance the student ratio, which he said, on the average, was one faculty to 19 students but was currently running at about one faculty to 39 students, a situation he described as only “scratching the surface”.
Prof. Tagoe attributed the lack of faculties at the university to the massive “brain drain” of faculty staff in the late 70’s and 80’s, where some qualified staff migrated from the country to lecture in different fields other than their own, describing it as “brain in the drain” of academic staff.
The problem, he said, was faced by universities across Africa, and to address it at a meeting of heads of universities last November, some universities which were approached in the USA had come forward to assist in resolving the situation, hence the agreement between the university and the USF.
“The National Council for Tertiary Education has been concerned about the issue and was raising monies to support faculty training but it’s not enough. That is why the agreement between us and the USF is welcome,” he stated, and pointed out that the initiative was an all-embracing agreement that any member of the university with ideas ought to benefit from.
“I have no doubt that this will be successful,” he said, and assured the delegation from USF of the full co-operation of the university’s administration.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Global Solutions at USF, Mrs Betty Castro, said the USF had entered into the agreement with the university because of Ghana’s long-standing relations with the USA and the excellent democratic rule existing in the country.
She said their goal was to create and expand collaborative efforts between universities of Africa and the USA through the Africa Initiative Group at the USF, which had a population of about 46,000 students.
Mrs Castro disclosed that the reason for choosing a university in Ghana was also because six members of their faculty from Ghana had documented the USF’s interest in African universities and they had found the University of Ghana to be number one.


Caption: The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe (middle), and Mrs Linda M. Whiterford, an Associate Vice President for Global Strategies (left), signing the MoU. Seated next to the Vice Chancellor is the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Kwesi Yankah.