The University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (VT), USA, have signed Letter of Agreement (LoA) to boost the academic interests of the two institutions.

The partnership agreement is expected to cover teaching, research and scholarly collaborations, as well as explore teaching opportunities intercultural student learning, graduate student training and faculty exchanges.

Signing of the LoA

At a ceremony to sign the agreement at the Council Chamber of the UCC, the leadership of the two institutions pledged their commitment to ensure that the LoA stood the test of time, as well as yielded the needed results.

Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong signing the MoU on behalf of UCC

The Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, expressed excitement over the new partnership and was hopeful that it would produce the desired results.

He told the visiting delegation that the School of Agriculture and the Department of Communication Studies of UCC were competent to liaise with VT to promote agricultural and environmental communications in Ghana and beyond.

For her part, the Head of Department of Agricultural, Leadership and Community at VT, Prof. Tracy Rutherford, said her university already had an existing collaboration with University of Media, Arts and Communication, Ghana She indicated that VT was happy to welcome UCC on board to form a tripartite partnership.

“We have heard UCC is the number one university in Ghana and West Africa, as well as the 7th in Africa. This collaboration will ensure the facilitation of research among faculty and students in mutually interested areas of study between the two universities. We are grateful for the hospitality accorded us since we arrive on UCC campus,” said Prof. Rutherford.

Prof. Rutherford, who led the delegation from VT, indicated that a new joint study track had been developed in the area of agricultural/rural and environmental communications for the partnership.

Background

Giving a background to the collaboration, a senior lecturer at the Department of Crop Science at UCC, Dr. Frank Kwekucher Ackah, said the signing of the MoU was as result of the engagement he had with management of VT College when he travelled to the United States of America.

According to Dr. Ackah, management of VT had shown commitment by sending a team to visit UCC for the signing ceremony. He indicated that the partnership would be very beneficial to both parties to project agriculture and environmental issues through communication.

Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong with the delegation from VT College of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community

Other members of VT College present at the meeting were Prof. Van Crowder, Prof. Donna Westfall-Rudd, Dr. Jean Parrella- all from the Department of Agricultural, Leadership and Community Education and the Director of VT School of Communication, Prof. John Tedesco.

The team from UCC at the meeting were the Dean of Office of International Relations, Prof. Bert Boadi-Kusi; Vice-Dean, School of Agriculture, Prof. Julius Kofi Hagan; Prof. Paul Agu Asare and Dr. Selorm Akaba from the School of Agriculture.

Source: Documentation and Information Section