An agreement has been reached or the Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom to offer full scholarships to two Ghanaian students annually to pursue degree courses of their choice.
The agreement was reached at a meeting between the university authorities and Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo in Liverpool.
It was a follow-up of a similar meeting held in December last year to explore means of establishing a relationship between Ghana and the institution and the possibility of sourcing scholarships for Ghanaian students to study at the university.
The Hope University was established by the Church of England Diocese of Chester and the Roman Catholic Sisters of Notre Dame as a teacher Education College for women in 1844
In was merged with two other colleges later and has since been expanded in both the range of degrees and in student numbers. It was approved as a full-fledged university by Privy Council of United Kingdom in July 2005.
It has over seven thousand students pursuing degrees in various disciplines such as Arts and the Humanities, Education, Business, Computer Science and Social Sciences.
Education experts from the university and the Ghana High Commission in London as well as officials from the Ministry of Education are to put up modalities for the programme to take off in September this year.
The University College of Education, Winneba and the University of Cape have been identified as beneficiaries of the offer. Already, two self-sponsored Ghanaian students have graduated with PhD degrees from the university.
The discussions centred on areas of possible partnership with the university and universities in Ghana.
Other areas of collaboration discussed included MA in Police Leadership and Criminal Justice, training of Ghanaian teachers to teach Music, and certificate courses in Community Social Work.
The meeting also stressed the importance of collaboration with Hope University and expected it to drive the sister-city relationship the High Commission is exploring with the City of Liverpool and some Ghanaian cities.
Professor Danso-Boafo expressed delight at the offer and noted that “it is good to know what Liverpool Hope University has to offer us as a nation and we will take full advantage of it.”
He was of the view that the identification of some more areas of cooperation between some other Ghanaian institutions would bring huge benefit to them.
He therefore suggested the need to explore some areas within the Ghana Police Service where education and training would be needed and put up plans towards that.
The High Commissioner emphasised the need for serious collaboration in the areas of training the students to acquire PhD degrees in Education. In his view, “that would have a more multiplying effect.”
The meeting which was chaired by the pro Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. W J Chambers was attended by all the four Deans of the institution as well as some officials from the Ghana Mission including the Minister Counsellor for Education, Mrs. Wilhemina Asamoah.
The High Commissioner and his entourage later had discussions with the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. G J Pillay.
Prof. G J Pillay lauded the agreement and said “Liverpool Hope University provides the right environment for character formation for the next generation and a commitment to values and leadership.”
He noted that the university could set up short certificate courses for politicians in the areas of democracy, governance and other related areas.
The Vice Chancellor observed, “this university is matured and has few life long partners and we are delighted to have good relations with Ghana.” He added that the University was proud of the 2 PhD students from Ghana who had graduated from the University.
Our university “creates communities and not numbers and we will like to have bright Ghanaian students come and go back as leaders” Prof. G J Pillay stressed.
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