UB Team Visits Liberian Universities for Institutional Partnerships and Research Collaborations
A University of Botswana delegation which is currently in Liberia has held talks with officials from various Liberian universities seeking institutional partnerships and research collaborations. Among the institutions they visited so far is the African Methodist University and University of Liberia.
At the University of Liberia, the delegation met four academic staff members who are University of Botswana alumni among them Dr Cecelia Cascell who is the Dean of the Faculty of Education. For UB to have alumni in Liberia, reaffirms its strategic goal of transforming into an engaged and people-centred university that supports both the national and global development agenda.
During discussions at the African Methodist University, the President of the university, Dr Alvin Attah, noted that it was a blessing to have an African university coming to their institution to seek collaboration. He said African universities must take centre stage in addressing Africa’s challenges instead of always looking to the west for solutions.
Dr Attah observed that developing linkages with another sister university was ideal for establishing partnerships. In addition, he said African universities must work out a plan that would facilitate Africa’s development agenda in that together they could partner to find solutions for African problems.
For his part, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Professor Richard Tabulawa, underscored the importance of partnerships in conducting research that could provide solutions to African challenges.
Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, said in the spirit of Pan-Africansim, the University of Botswana was extending its hand to capacitate Liberian universities’ academic staff by offering them opportunities to pursue post-graduate training. Currently, UB has 40 masters and 54 PhD programmes. It was noted that UB also offers PhD scholarship which is open to all.
At the end, the two parties agreed that the discussions should culminate in the singing of a Memorandum of Understanding that would facilitate staff and student exchanges.