As part of efforts to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the Humanities and Education Required Course (HERC) programme, a dissemination workshop on HERC was held by the University of Ghana College of Humanities and Education (CoH) on Wednesday 13th December, 2023.
The workshop took place at the Maison Francaise Conference Hall at the University to provide a platform for the HERC research team to share their research findings and provide insights into the programme.
HERC was introduced as a replacement for two University Required Courses which were scraped off to make up for the required minimum credit hours for a University student. After about three years since the inception of the course, there has been a need for a review to aid in constructive restructuring of the implemented programme.
The presentation which was done by Mr. Edward Joseph Yawson and Mrs. Josephine Araba Duncan Ofori, both members of the HERC team, highlighted some major challenges identified by the team. A significant issue that was raised was the issue of the population of students offering the course, for which many of the problems identified were associated with.
As part of the proposed solutions, proper orientation of college staff on the programme was a necessity.
“All the newly appointed members of staff at every department need to be oriented. Lecturers need to be well addressed with the program and ready to support the students when they need information on the Humanities and Education Required Course programme. There are issues with better space, teaching material and also human resources that should be addressed. And then we also suggested that the quota for departments and schools should be reviewed based on the human resource, class size as well as student admission.”
After the presentation by the team, the attendees were given an opportunity to make their submissions. A faculty member lecturer equally raised concerns about strategies adopted by the various faculty members in educating themselves and students about the HERC programme .
Another attendee suggested that courses that focused on financial literacy and entrepreneurship should be incorporated into the HERC program.
“I noted that all the courses offered for HERC do not necessarily provide students with the requisite knowledge for the working world. I think financial literacy and entrepreneurship courses should be introduced as part of the already existing ones to prepare these students to face the world.”
In their concluding remarks, the HERC research team made some recommendations to further enhance the programme.
It was proposed that the University of Ghana Computer Systems and the Academic Affairs Directorate be actively involved in stakeholder engagements to ensure the continuous success of the programme. Strict enforcement of the policy was also recommended for the students to meet minimum required Grade Point Average (GPA) before progressing to the subsequent levels.
The team called for the review of courses offered for the HERC programme to enable the University achieve its aim to helping students gain expertise in the field of study before graduating.
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Story by: Michelle Lartey | univers.ug.edu.gh
