The University of Professional Studies, Accra, has launched a project to get its academics and researchers to create indigenous academic materials for use by both students and industry for knowledge generation that serves the University community and beyond.
The Faculty – Authored book project, which is under the auspices of the Vice Chancellor and the Office of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, was launched on June 12, 2025, at the premises of the University.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Radio Univers, the Pro Vice Chancellor in charge of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, Professor Samuel Antwi added that the unique project being developed by the University is to allow students and users of academic materials to be able to access affordable but quality learning and resource materials from lecturers who have a deeper understanding of successful local entities.
“The main overarching aim of the University under the auspices of the Vice Chancellor, is to create a platform for our distinguished Faculty members to publish their scholarly works and materials into books that are ready to access and use by not only students of the Ups but other thousands of Ghanaians in other public universities as well as across the continent.
“This approach will make it cost-effective for students to be able to purchase local reference materials for conducive teaching and learning, whilst creating a wider reach for our Faculty members to disseminate their research works for promotion and regional recognition.”
Also, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Professor John Mawutor, added that the Faculty-authored book project is a long-held vision of Management to create reputable platforms for distinguished scholars in the institution and contemporaries in other public institutions schools to get their scholarly works published widely to a wider audience regionally and globally.
“It has been a long-held vision of Management and me to empower our faculty members to think beyond just teaching in the classrooms using foreign resource materials, but to focus on getting their brilliant works marketed to the outside world to impact the business world and the general public.
“We need to move beyond our over-dependence on foreign academic journals and research materials in teaching our students, which has been the situation for decades.
“We have brilliant business case studies involving Ghanaian entities who are pushing their arms into regional and global markets, and we have to push our scholars to use their acquired academic skillset to project the successes of such businesses into the minds of today’s generation of students to value the sense of celebrating excellent local companies through experiential learning.”
Furthermore, the Coordinator of the Project, Dr Boachie-Yiadom, walked the audience through the various stages of the project and the end goal in selecting deserving applicants who will be celebrated after a rigorous process.
“We, the project team, are really happy to see this process through as assigned to us by our noble Vice Chancellor ( Professor John Mawutor) and as such, steps have been taken to set the ball rolling.
“We are looking at opening the portals for interested Faculty members to apply to be part of this life-changing project of getting local indigenous scholarly works to become the go-to resource materials for our students and beyond.
“The whole set-up involves about 6 unique stages, which will be strictly monitored by our committee to ensure that only the best of the best candidates get chosen to partake in this legacy-defining innovation, being the first of its kind in Ghana.”
The project seeks to create a platform for local scholars to develop resource material that can compete with internationally recognised publications to serve both regional and global markets.
Images from the book launch can be found below:
Story by: Sika Togoh | univers.ug.edu.gh
