Work to solve local problems - Cornell University Provost urges tertiary institutions
The Provost of Cornell University, Professor Michael Kotlikoff, has underscored the importance of institutions of higher education to collaborate and share resources to tackle domestic challenges unique to their respective countries before they escalate into global problems.
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That, he said, was because the depths of the talents across the globe, including Ghana, combined with the magnitude of the problems that faced the planet and humanity, suggested that there was the need for a bi-directional flow of research, innovation and information.
“We need to work together to solve local problems before they become global problems and critical to the success of these projects is in-country investments by governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs),” Mr Kotlikoff said.
He made the statement in Accra at a leadership discussion between a delegation from the Cornell University in the United States (US) and the University of Ghana (UG), aimed at exploring various aspects of collaboration.
Event
The discussion was on the theme: "The future of collaboration: Global higher education and making a difference at home and in the world.”
The delegation was on a two-day visit, which formed part of the UG’s ambition to become a world-class research-intensive university by partnering other research institutions and universities for global visibility, technology transfer, innovation, societal impact and cultural exchange.
The two universities have a working relationship spanning about two decades, which has achieved significant results, including the establishment of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) in 2007 on the UG, Legon campus to train plant breeders and to ultimately help improve food security in Ghana and across Africa.
Mr Kotlikoff, however, intimated that as global partnerships looked forward to more exchanges of students between universities, the overall arching goal should be to ensure that the best and brightest students were able to thrive and innovate in Ghana.
“The partnership between us has deep roots.
We prize the Ghanaian students we have at Cornell.
We are thrilled to have a strong and growing population from Ghana. Cornell’s population of students from Ghana has doubled in the last 10 years and we hope to see it grow further,” he added.
Significance
The UG Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, said her outfit was excited about the upscaling of collaboration with Cornell not only because of the direct mutual benefit, but also the incidental opportunities which arrived from such exchanges.
She explained that as a university poised to distinguish itself through cutting-edge research, its internationalisation strategy was expected to provide a roadmap that standardised its approach in courting international collaborators, diversifying its stakeholder base and providing an enabling environment that would attract and retain highly reputable partners.
A Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim-Fordjour, who represented the President, touted the collaboration of the two universities, saying that it had further deepened the friendship between Ghana and the US.
