Gambian Minister of Higher Education and Delegation visit ACE Impact Centre (KEEP) to Strengthen Existing Collaboration and Partnership

The strong collaboration between the Gambian Ministry of Higher Education and the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) is a shining example of successful regional collaboration and one that the ACE Impact project promotes. 

On June 1, 2021, honorable Badara A. Joof, the Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) of The Gambia and a delegation from the Gambian Technical Training Institute (GTTI) visited the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and the ACE Impact Center – KEEP, hosted by the KNUST in Ghana.   

The KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) has a collaboration with the GTTI and provides mentorship to help transform the technical Institute into a technical university, with the capacity to offer core engineering degree programs. The purpose of the meeting included strengthening collaboration between the two parties in the areas of offering short-courses, training, and mentorship of PhD students, enrolling mature students, training of MSc. students to serve as Research Assistants and Laboratory Technicians and to officially finalize the contractual agreement between GTTI and KNUST. 

The Gambian delegation was received by the Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson, who assured the team of the institution’s commitment to ensuring an effective collaboration and implementation of the key areas of the partnership. The team also took advantage of their presence in KNUST to interact with students from the Gambia (47 undergraduates, 10 PhDs and 2 Master’s students) who have been enrolled in the Department of Civil, Electrical and Electronic and Mechanical Engineering in KNUST.  

Meeting with the AAU, University of Ghana, and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission

The Regional Facilitation Unit of the ACE Impact Project, the Association of African Universities (AAU), facilitated meetings between the Gambian delegation and the University of Ghana, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the AAU Team. In all three institutions the delegation was received by the heads of the institutions, – the Secretary General, Prof. Etienne Ehile of the AAU, the Vice – Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu of the University of Ghana, and the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof. Mohammed Salifu.  

Key discussions at these meetings focused on the parties’ identifying key ways of strengthening existing collaboration between Ghana and the Gambia in Education. Prof. Badara Joof, the Gambian Minister of Education reiterated the Gambia’s high regard for higher education institutions in Ghana and generally the West Africa sub-region.  He called on the institutions they visited (UG, AAU and GTEC) to help build Gambia’s capacity in quality assurance and other relevant areas to enable the country achieve excellence in their tertiary and higher education sector.