Ressort Presse

• 16.09.2024

Strengthening and expanding academic contacts – this was the goal when Prof. Karen Shire (Ph.D.), Vice-Rector for University Culture, Diversity and International Affairs; Prof. Dr. Astrid Westendorf, Vice-Rector for Research and Early-Career Researchers; Prof. Dr. Erwin Amann, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration; and Simone Müller from the International Office travelled to Ghana in the first week of September.

Last year, the University of Duisburg-Essen became a founding member of the Ghana-NRW University Alliance, an association of eight universities and higher education institutions from across North Rhine-Westphalia. With the help of a joint office in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, this alliance aims to enhance cooperation in education and research between Ghana and NRW.

The UDE delegation visited two universities in Ghana between 2 and 6 September in order to initiate first cooperations in the fields of medicine, social sciences and economics, and to meet researchers in these areas. Dr. Beatrice Asenso Barnieh, the head of the office in Accra, gave them great support during their trip.

‘In the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, we found modern, dynamic universities that show great willingness to expand their educational and research cooperations with UDE and the other universities within the Ghana-NRW Alliance as equal partners’, Vice-Rector Shire tells us. ‘Especially at the master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral levels, this exchange will be hugely beneficial for both sides, and we expect to receive applications from our new partners for the UA Ruhr Research Explorer and the UDE International Guest Researcher programmes.’

The delegation was particularly impressed with the focus both Ghanaian universities placed on postgraduate education, their networks with other universities in West Africa and the research they conduct that contributes to West Africa reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.

The University of Ghana has set itself the goal of increasing cooperation with universities in other countries, and in Germany in particular, in its internationalisation strategy. And there are further objectives on other levels of university development that the University of Ghana shares with UDE – for example with regard to biomedical research, sustainability, climate action and digitalisation. To underline the compatibility of the two universities and to boost cooperation between them, an MOU was drafted together with the Dean of the International Program Office, Prof. Jemima Asabea Anderson. This document will soon be signed by the management of both universities. The Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy at the University of Ghana is already cooperating with UDE’s Institute for Political Science for the master’s course in Development and Governance; this collaboration receives funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the Dean of the International Program Office, Prof. Daniel Y.A. Duah, PhD, also described the university’s compelling internationalisation strategy and emphasised his commitment to cooperating with UDE. An MOU is also to be negotiated with this university in future to strengthen collaboration. A first cooperation is about to start soon: as part of a DAAD University-Business Partnership, UDE will cooperate with the KNUST and other African partners for the project ‘Membrane Knowledge Hub: A University-Industry Platform Towards Sustainable Water and Energy Management in Africa (WE-Africa)’. The aim of this partnership is to make a contribution to socio-economic growth and environmental protection in Africa by establishing a knowledge hub on membrane technology at the partner universities involved.

Vice-Rector Westendorf reconfirmed UDE’s interest in German-Ghanaian exchange: ‘I am quite impressed with the quality of research and the equipment at the research institutions in the field of infectious diseases. I can see numerous opportunities for cooperation for our Faculty of Medicine, in particular when it comes to research on tropical infectious diseases.’

‘Both Ghanaian universities have a strong research profile in the field of health economics, which is interesting for our faculty’, says Erwin Amann, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at UDE. ‘We would like to encourage our students to study abroad in West Africa. We are also prepared to contribute to qualification programmes in fields such as econometrics.’

The UDE delegation also used the opportunity to sustainably strengthen UDE’s relations with Ghana by visiting the German Embassy in Accra, the DAAD Regional Office and the Goethe-Institut during their trip.

Another visit to Ghana is planned for early 2025, this time to see the third leading university in the country, the University of Cape Coast. The Vice-Rectors aim is to get further faculties and research centres involved in this cooperation.

Pictured: The UDE delegation’s visit to the renowned Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research on Tropical Diseases (KCCR), which has already collaborated on the topic of global health and pandemic prevention with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg and the Berlin School of Public Health.

Further information:
Ghana-NRW University Alliance: https://portal.uni-koeln.de/international/uoc-global/internationale-anlaufstellen/ghana-nrw-university-alliance

Prof. Karen Shire (Ph.D.) Vice-Rector for University Culture, Diversity and International Affairs, +49 203 379 4048, shire.prorektorin@uni-due.de