As part of its social responsibility programmes, Trinity Spirit International (TSI) on Saturday, October 23, 2011, organised a night of interaction with the physically-challenged on the premises of Trinity Campus, at Mataheko, Accra.
The programme, dubbed ‘Project Agape’ and organised in collaboration with the university, provided a congenial atmosphere for a close fellowship with these loved ones who, though may include relations, friends, acquaintances or faces one often meets in the traffic, feel rejected by the larger society.
They were treated to food and drinks and went away with various gifts and happy feelings that they were, after all, not social outcasts, but bona fide members of the society with equal rights with their fellow citizens.
Speaking at the occasion, Victor C. T. Ofinam-Antwi, Communications and Helps Desk Manager of the university, urged them not to bemoan their circumstances, but to exploit their individual talents and strengths to their advantage.
He observed that though the government, social organisations, or individuals may present them with wheel chairs, clutches and other interventions to make life more enjoyable for them, it is, invariably, in their power to reject self-pity and to translate what others give them into treasurers for improving their circumstances.
Speaking to the media after the programme, Mr. Ned Morgan, TSI president, said his group was moved by the love of God demonstrated through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for the sinner to do whatever it could practically, to win all people, regardless of their social backgrounds, for Christ.
The President and CEO, has urged the government to make pragmatic efforts to upgrade all basic schools to enable final products of the country’s educational system compete favourably with others in an ICT-driven age.
He said the idea of establishing one Class A or model schools in each district in the country is not the best solution to the country’s educational problems, noting that the government should rather ensure that every school is equally endowed as a more proactive view of the global picture.
Prof. Kingsley Larbi made the observation as guest speaker on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at a ceremony climaxing this year’s week-long Odwira festival of the chiefs and people of Larteh-Akuapem.
The well-attended ceremony was used to raise funds in aid of a nurses’ quarters and other projects in Guanman.
Speaking about the poor health delivery in the town and other places in the country, Prof. Kingsley Larbi regretted that computers donated to enhance the work of the hospital in the town are still abandoned in boxes with health personnel not having desks to work with.
On the problems undermining the town’s infrastructural development, the Regent University President called on the traditional leaders of the town to unite and identify talented and passionate citizens who could constitute committees with set targets to be achieved within time frames and to report back to the chiefs during future festivals for further review.
He observed that while some projects could as well be adopted by individuals, heads of various institutions should also come together to work towards raising the living standards of the people.
Rev. Prof. Kingsley-Larbi noted that if the youth of the town should stay at home to study, necessary facilities like a well-stocked library should be provided where they could spend time for self-development.
Participants of the 3rd intake of the Regent-Maastricht MBA students were in Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands, for their attachment. Their attachment started on September 26, 2011 and ended on October 6, 2011. During their stay at MSM, Dr. R. Goedegebuure delivered the following modules: Marketing in a Global Context and Master Thesis Writing Workshop.
Apart from the lectures from Dr. R. Goedegebuure, the Ghanaian MBA students also participated in work visits.
On the 3rd of October they visited the European Commission in Brussels, Mr. Vanderappellen and Mr Ruesch did presentations on “The European Institutions” and “Development Policy” respectively. On 5th October the students visited IKEA for a presentation on IKEA’s approach to Marketing.
Dr. Stanley Moffatt, Dean of the School of Informatics and Engineering (SIE), and Co-ordinator for USEACANI (US-Europe-Asia-Caribbean Nanotechnology Initiative) in Africa, has urged the need to bridge the nano-divide as an innovative science to alleviate the miserable medical plight of the needy in Africa.
Dr. Moffatt was addressing the just-ended first European Congress of Applied Nanotechnology held in Berlin, Germany from September 26 to October 1, 2011.
Delivering an insightful and intellectually-stimulating paper entitled "Nanoengineering in Africa: A Myth or Reality? the dean defined nanotechnology as the science (creation and utilization) of materials, devices and systems through the control of matter at the nanometer scale, i.e., at the level of atoms, molecules and supra-molecular structures.
He said Nanoscience, the foundation by which all natural materials are established, is, therefore, the next industrial revolution that would re-structure the technologies currently used for manufacturing, defense, energy production, communication, computation, engineering and medicine.
Dr. Moffatt, who has copious publications and enormous expertise in this technically innovative discipline, noted that when reduced to the nanoscale, the physics and chemistry of the materials become radically different; having different strengths, conductivity, better permeability and reactivity, which could be exploited to revolutionize engineering and medicine.
Dr. Moffatt defined nanoengineering in the field of medicine as involving various programmes for application of newly-emerging nanotechnologies for drug delivery, enhancement in medical imaging and medical treatment, based on molecular processes at the cellular level.
He stated that Nanotechnology holds enormous potential for healthcare, from delivering drugs more effectively, diagnosing diseases more rapidly and sensitively, and delivering more effective vaccines, bearing in mind that almost all areas of nanoengineering are directly relevant to humans because of the importance of nanoscale phenomena to cellular functions.
Though some critics argue that when millions of people in countries like India or those in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, are dying because of a lack of access to even basic healthcare, investing in cutting-edge technologies is a ludicrous waste of money, Dr. Moffatt argued that, while poor countries have an ongoing responsibility to strengthen healthcare systems and provide wider access to medicine, investments in nanoengineering could, in the long run, save lives by making diagnosis and treatment far more effective.
It is not surprising that many emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore and South Africa, have ambitious research and development (R&D) plans for nanoengineering.
Dr. Moffatt argued that though Africans have the skill and power to revolutionize research through nanoengineering, the third engineering revolution of the last 200 years is sadly passing by the continent, making Africans ”spectators" as the world turns.
He stressed that Africans must not remain spectators forever and strongly proposed that African scientists must hasten to accelerate their innovative contributions in nanoengineering to alleviate poverty-related diseases in Africa.
The Dean said Ghana, and Africa for that matter, is endowed with scientists possessing the intellectual ability and the relevant track record of achievement to make Africans contributors to knowledge and holders of patents that will earn the continent respect as elevating the human condition, and not just as "consumers of the products of the ingenuity of others."
To do this, Dr. Moffatt said the government and private sectors must give pure and applied science national priority and endowed scientists encouraged through "meritocracy," and not the usual human networking and nepotism which, he regretted, has bedeviled Africa for so long.
The Dean further regretted that most of Africa’s mission-less and vision-less elected political leaders are only interested in lining their own pockets, and living lives of comfort with flagrant disregard for the future of the continent, the poverty-stricken, and the implications of the neglect to promote science and technology locally.
He warned that Africans shall continue to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for developed nations if they do not give innovative science in nanoengineering a pride of place in national budgets.
Prof. E. Kingsley Larbi, President and CEO, left Accra on Monday, September 5 for The Netherlands where he was expected to be Guest Speaker for this year’s graduation ceremony of the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) scheduled for September 8, 2011.
Prof Kingsley Larbi whose invitation was at the instance of Prof. Dr. Peter P. de Gijsel, Dean-Director of Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands, was expected to speak to students and guests from around the world, including the second intake of the Regent-Maastricht MBA class graduating on September 8.
The Regent University College of Science and Technology runs the only AMBA-accredited MBA in Ghana in collaboration with the Maastricht School of Management, the third intake of which is half-way through the course. The Regent-Maastricht MBA prepares students for the award of the degree of Masters of Business Administration (MBA).
The Regent-Maastricht MBA programme is a flexible two-year programme that offers participants the opportunity to attend lectures in the evenings and weekends. It further affords them the privilege to combine studies with work and domestic.
The programme is run on a modular basis, allowing students to attend lectures on weekends.
Thirteen students of the Regent University College of Science and Technology, alongside over 150 others from more than 25 countries around the world, were on Thursday September 8, 2011, awarded the prestigious Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree by the Maastricht School of Management (MSM), the largest international business school in The Netherlands.
Also awarded was Joanna Adjoa Komey, a Regent-Ghana alumnus, who got an MSM-Regent scholarship to pursue the programme in Maastricht.
The Regent University College of Science and Technology runs the only AMBA-accredited MBA in Ghana in collaboration with the Maastricht School of Management. The Regent-Maastricht MBA prepares students for the award of the degree of Masters of Business Administration (MBA). The students who graduated were the second intake since the programme began in Ghana. The third intake is currently half-way through the course.
The Regent-Maastricht MBA programme is a flexible modular-based two-year programme in which lectures are delivered in the evenings and weekends, hence affording participants the opportunity to combine studies with work and other domestic activities.
The MBA programme aims at teaching concepts and theories of management, stimulating critical thinking and transforming management problems into opportunities from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The general approach includes lectures, problem-based learning exercises, case studies analysis, students' participation, seminars, discussions, independent studies, field visits and Maastricht Attachments.
Students who graduated are: