A visiting lecturer from Midland State University (MSU), Gweru, Zimbabwe, Dr. Ennie Manyumwa, has urged management and staff of the College of Distance Education (CoDE) to develop strategies to promote collaborative research in the College.
She noted that promoting collaborative research would create opportunities for the College and for that matter UCC to win both local and international research grants and also help lecturers to progress through the academic ladder.
Dr. Manyumwa gave the advice when she delivered a lecture on “Sharing University Teaching Experience” at CoDE Conference Room.
Sharing the experience of her University, Dr. Manyumwa said they had made a conscious effort to develop strategies for collaborative research by identifying themes out of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “We form research clusters with team leaders and hold retreats for the lecturers where we invite renowned publishers to make presentations on the expectation of their journals,” she explained.
According to her, MSU had made a strenuous effort to help lecturers to publish, indicating that “there is a Research Board that support lecturers to conduct research and also publish their papers in renowned journals”. She noted that it was a strict requirement for lecturers to publish a minimum of one research paper every year, stressing that “we firmly hold unto the saying, publish or perish in our university”.
Dr. Manyumwa also shared a number of activities her university undertakes, including community engagement and collaboration with local and international universities
The Provost of CoDE, Prof. Isaac Galyuon, who chaired the lecture, said he was fascinated by the work of the Research Board of MSU and noted that UCC also has a Directorate of Research Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) that performs similar roles. “The lecture has helped us to learn best practices and benchmarks which are noteworthy,” he noted.
On the issue of collaboration, he assured the visiting lecturer that the College would liaise with the Centre for International Education to work out the partnership arrangement between UCC and MSU so that a memorandum of understanding could be signed between the two institutions to formalise the relationship. “We need to have more collaboration with many African universities to project the capabilities of the African researcher,” he stressed.
Present at the lecture were Registrar of CoDE, Mr. Opoku Oku-Afari, heads of department, and staff of CoDE.