Officials from British Council Calls on Pro-Vice-Chancellor

A two-member delegation from the British Council has paid a courtesy call on the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. G. K. T. Oduro at his office.   The visit was meant to explore possible ways of the collaboration between UCC and the British Council. The team comprised Assistant Director, Emily Sawle Thomas and Project Delivery Manager, Christiana Bandoh.   Emily Thomas said the British Council was very happy to support UCC in finding collaborations that would enhance the quality of delivery by faculty.  It was for that reason they were on campus to explore more on institutional sponsorship to ascertain how effective that could be and also what could be done to take it to the next level. She said their visit was also intended to express appreciation to the university for hosting the UK International Fair on its campus last year.   A lecturer at the School of Allied Health Sciences, UCC, Dr. Patrick Ofori who accompanied the British Council delegation urged the two parties to consider issues concerning students in their collaboration.  Dr. Ofori specifically mentioned areas such as how to link up and treat foreign students, how to groom students for both internships and job interviews. He called for the institutionalization of such collaborations instead of allowing them to be revolving around individuals who do the linking up.   Prof. Oduro in his response said he was very much delighted to be receiving the delegation on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor indicating that the visit has opened up an avenue for dialogue and discussions.   Assuring the delegation that the collaborations would not be “hijacked” by individuals, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor said it was now mandatory for collaborations to go through the appropriate university processes before they were finally approved.   Prof. Oduro told the delegation that one area that needed to be considered critically was how to write winnable research grant proposals by local researchers. He said since most of the research comes from foreign partners it was difficult for local researchers to lead in such research undertakings and therefore warrants serious capacity building and strengthening. In that direction, he proposed to the British Council to invite people from the United Kingdom and elsewhere to help in the capacity building process.