Immediate Past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, yesterday inaugurated phase II of the UG Dental School and a refurbished library for the College of Health Sciences (CHS) in Accra.
The facilities, sited at the Korle Bu campus of the college, are to aid training of students, improve skills of faculty and enhance research in the overall delivery of healthcare services across the country.
In an address, Prof. Owusu said the completion of the projects was in line with achieving the University’s strategic priorities of research, teaching and learning.
“These projects will also help the college in its bid to create an exciting intellectual climate that encourages relevant cutting-edge research and community engagement,” he said.
According to the outgone Vice-Chancellor, the universities ranking agencies worldwide considered facilities universities had and how they were maintained for better students’ learning experience during the ranking processes.
He thus encouraged management and staff of the college to prioritise the maintenance of the projects to prolong their life span and achieve expected outcomes.
“We all have a duty to ensure that the little the University has is maintained to ensure that we are able to remain competitive to attract some of the best faculty and staff to work here,” he added.
Prof. Owusu seized the occasion to urge both teaching and non-teaching staff of the university to support the new management to succeed in its tenure.
He stressed that the new management would need the total support and encouragement of the university community to be able to make the institution a better place than they had come to meet.
“As I bow out as the Vice-Chancellor of this great university of ours, I urge all of us to be mindful of our actions and inactions. Let us avoid doing things that have the potential to injure the enviable reputation of this university. We must help to build the university we want to have,” he charged.
Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Rev. Prof. Patrick Ferdinand Ayeh-Kumi, said the CHS has benefited greatly from the leadership of the out-gone Vice Chancellor, Prof. Owusu.
“Across a broad front, the college, the university and the nation at large have benefited from your administration. Indeed, the construction and the completion of the UG-Noguchi Advanced Research Laboratories Building which has offered immeasurable help to the nation during this COVID-19 pandemic is one such addition to the college,” he said.
Prof. Ayeh-Kumi expressed confidence that the management would provide the strong leadership needed to effectively co-ordinate all the relevant activities, “so that the facilities we are leaving today, will become fully and sustainably functional.”
“I believe that in the development of our nation, we need the culture of maintenance. Let us work to value what we have and sincerely cherish them, maintain these facilities for posterity,” he urged.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
