University of West Florida visit University of Education, Winneba

In its bid to establish partnership with Universities in Ghana and Africa as a whole, two officials from the University of West Florida (UWF) visited the University of Education, Winneba on Wednesday, 20th December, 2016 at the North Campus. The two officials, Prof. Francis E. Godwyll, the Chairman for the Department for Research and Advanced Studies and Director for Doctoral Studies and Dr. Wisdom Mensah, in charge of marketing University of West Florida in Ghana interacted with a team from UEW chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mawutor Avoke.

The Vice-Chancellor of UEW was enthused and stated that UEW was desirous about partnering with the University of West Florida. He continued that things like Journal Publications, Researches, Building capacity of Graduate students, Doctoral Studies and Conferences are things that will spur the institution on and are therefore critical issues to the University. Prof. Francis E. Godwyll in his purpose for the visit stated that their visit was an exploratory one. He informed members present that the University of West Florida wants to expand its internationalisation links. He remarked that even though there is always a pivot towards Asia in such situations, he was of the view that Africa has a lot of potential and areas to be explored. Therefore, Ghana and University of Education, Winneba could not be bypassed. He noted that the purpose of the visit was;

• to explore the possibility of establishing student/faculty study abroad exchange programs between the two institutions,
• explore the possibility of having a capacity building program in Ghana that would leverage the strengths of University of West Florida
• possibility of delivering some on-site selected UWF College of Education and Professional Studies doctoral and masters programs.

He continued that, UWF is about to start a summer research school and he hoped this would be of interest to doctoral students as it would be beneficial to them. Prof. Godwyll said that, at the masters level, UWF would want to share a program called the College Student Administration Affairs (simply a masters in University Administration). This program is to help with University Administration especially dealing with students’ life on campus. Additionally, UWF is also thinking of sharing one of their doctoral programs (Curriculum and Instruction) and aspects of specialisation under this course include Administration and Leadership, Technology, Instructional Technology, Design and Technology, Exercise Science amongst others.

Prof. Godwyll said that, he is aware that UEW runs different doctoral programs. However, his University is ready to come on board to help graduate students in UEW with capacity building, external evaluation and any other help that would be beneficial to them. Prof. Mawutor Avoke, in his closing remarks informed the team that, “anything that enhances expertise and teaching and learning, we are all for it”. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Rev. Fr. Professor Anthony Afful-Broni, the Registrar, Dr. C. Y. Akwaa-Mensah, Ag. Principal for Asante-Mampong, Prof. Kagya Kwame Agyeman, Dean of the Faculty for Educational Studies, Prof. George Kankam, Director for the Centre for International Programme, Prof. Sekyi-Baidoo, Dean of the Faculty of Science Education, Prof. Samuel Asiedu Addo, Head of Department (Communication and Media Studies) Ms. Joyce Mensah, Senior Assistant Registrar(Centre for International Programmes) Mr. Andy Agordah, and Mr. Henry Kpodo, Office of the Vice Chancellor were part of the Vice-Chancellor’s team that interacted with the visitors.