July 2, 2010 at the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing with the Sector Minister; Hon. Alban S. K. Bagbin and his deputy, Maj. (Rtd) Dr Mustapha Ahmed.
The Vice-Chancellor disclosed that he was there to introduce himself to them and primarily to solicit the Ministry’s support for UDS to achieve its mandate. Secondly to invite the Minister to visit UDS and have a first hand information of situations on the ground and further, to request for at least 10 to 20 unit houses to be constructed in the University. He indicated that due to lack of accommodation for staff, the University had some difficulties in attracting lecturers. He would therefore be pleased, if the Minister could add this request to his list of priorities.
Responding, the Sector Minister said he was grateful for the visit and prayed that UDS would position itself well to compete with the highly endowed tertiary institutions. He did indicate that, there were a lot of areas in which his Ministry could collaborate with the universities and that he also recognized the challenges facing UDS, regarding the accommodation for its’ staff and students.
He hinted that with the impending projects from STX Corporation of South Korea, the first phase would be for the security agencies and the second phase could be extended to the universities and therefore knowing the plight of UDS, he pledged his support to the University.
He recalled some donations he made on behalf of the Northern Parliamentarians to the University sometime in 2003 and the timely meeting that Dr. Owusu Daako the then Vice-Dean of the UDS Medical School organized between the Northern Parliamentarians and the Medical School which yielded results; hence the consolidation of the UDS Medical School.
An area of concern he raised was about the gap created between them (parliamentarians) and the academia and that he was using this platform to call for the bridging of such a gap. In his concluding remarks, he accepted the offer to visit UDS and called on VCG to come together and submit to his Ministry a list of needs.
On the part of the Deputy Sector Minister, Maj. (Rtd) Dr Mustapha Ahmed he reiterated the need to close up the gap between them the politicians and academia for the common good of all. He further suggested that UDS and the other universities could come together and submit a proposal on the needs, so that with the influx of the foreign companies into Ghana they could package these needs for their attention.
In conclusion, Hon. Bagbin thanked V.C for the courtesy call and wish him the very best in his new appointment. He reminded him that once UDS was their baby, they would give it the needed support for it to be counted among the best.
Also present were Mr. Michael Ansa, Assistant Registrar, Accra Office and Mr. Samuel A. Awugah Assistant Registrar, UR.