University governance training underway
Thirty top officials of universities in Ghana and Nigeria have met at the Centre for International Affairs of the University of Ghana, Legon, to brainstorm on university governance and the way forward.
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The six-day training programme, organised by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) is being attended by vice chancellors, deputy vice chancellors and presidents of both public and private universities in the two countries.
Since its inception six years ago, the training programme, Senior Academic Leaders Training (SALT) in West Africa enables vice chancellors, deputy vice chancellors and presidents of universities to share notes on how to address challenges in their respective institutions.
Topics for training programme
Topics to be treated include: University governance: Theoretical consideration; University governance: Some talking points; Financial management and resource moblisation; Repositioning research in African universities; Funding university research; and Quality assurance.
Inclusion of private universities
Briefing the media, a former Executive Secretary of the NCTE, Dr Paul Effah, said over the past six years, the training had been focused on public universities.
“But this year, we have added a new dimension by including the private universities to learn from them how they have been able to resolve challenges of university governance,” he said.
He said given the importance of the management of private universities, organisers thought it wise to bring their chancellors and vice chancellors on board, “so that we can share experiences.”
Dr Effah, who is also the Project Co-ordinator of SALT, said since the inception of the programme, more than 400 university leaders had undergone the training and was hopeful that they would bring to bear whatever they learnt on the management of their respective universities.
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University governance
Touching on the topic, “University governance: Theoretical considerations”, Dr Effah took participants through the USA, British university and the Confucian models.
He said, for instance, the Confucian Model, which is practised by the Chinese, had led to the rapid development of China, which was fast becoming an economic and political force to reckon with.
Dr Effah said university governance was a shared responsibility and was hopeful that all would play their respective roles to enhance the quality of university education.
He said until the 1990s, public universities never had strategic planning, adding that with the current dwindling of funding from the central government, public universities had no choice but to add a business angle to university governance.