Book launched in honour of Prof Kuupole

A 136-page book, titled, “Managing the contemporary Ghanaian University: Reflections of a former Vice-Chancellor” has been launched in honour of Professor Domwini Dabire Kuupole, the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The book is a collection of ideas from six members of the university, an academic and five administrators: on how they perceived Prof Kuupole and focuses on his tenure as the Vice Chancellor of UCC.

The six-chapter book was edited by Moses Maclean Abnory, Director, Directorate of Legal, Consular and General Services of UCC and published by Adonai Publications.

Other contributors included Professor Kweku Boakye, Head, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Mrs. Joana Dodoo, Assistant Lecturer, College of Distance Education (CoDE).

The rest were Mr. Ignatius Stsibu, Assistant Registrar, Directorate of Legal, Consular and General Services, Mrs. Angela Ofori, Assistant Registrar, Documentation and Information Section and Mr. Lawrence Andaani, Principal Administrative Assistant, SRC Hostel.

Chapter one of the book discusses UCC in a historical context while chapter two outlines the current challenges of a public university such as funding, intense competition, innovation, staffing and posits them as the basis for quality leadership in the university.

Chapters three, four and five, give the background of Prof. Kuupole and explores his life journey in UCC heightening his appointment, duties and experiences as well as his achievements and challenges.

Dr. Paul Effah, President of Radford University and Former Executive Secretary, National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) who reviewed the book commended the authors for compiling their views into a book.

He said higher education had become a discipline taught and studied and stressed the need for best practices to be adopted to guide students, researchers, policy makers and future managers and leaders in universities and tertiary institutions.

In this regard, he said the book would be very useful for current and future tertiary education managers and leaders.

He commended Prof Kuupole who he described him as a ‘major criterion of leadership’ for opening himself up to be used as subject for discussion.

“Prof Kuupole also deserves our commendation. It is not easy to open oneself up in a book like this. He has certainly met one of the tests of leadership, which is whether or not one could go back to one’s institution after leaving office”, he said.

Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, Former Vice-Chancellor of UCC who chaired the ceremony said the book provided useful lessons for university leaders to desist from repeating avoidable mistakes.

According to him, the position of a university leader was one of the most transient and demanding tasks, given the complex nature of university operations and recommended the book for all aspiring and potential Vice Chancellors.

Professor Clifford Tagoe, a Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG) in a statement indicated that modern-day universities had not only become large, but complex in structure and organisation and therefore made management more challenging.

He said it was imperative for Vice-Chancellors to be versatile and employ innovative and inclusive mechanisms to achieve better results and to promote continuous development.

For his part, Professor Kuupole noted that knowing how others perceived one's leadership and management style could help leaders to retool their mindset for future leadership endeavours.

He acknowledged that and constructive criticisms from others could serve as a motivation for leaders to improve on their leadership capabilities, attitudes and comportment to impact more positively on the systems and the people they led.

The former VC expressed gratitude to the team for taking the pain to write about him and assured he was still open for more deliberations.

The first copy of the book was bought by Prof Tagoe at Gh¢ 2,000 followed by Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng.