Ghana's University of Cape Coast (UCC) today joined the Virtual Institute (Vi), becoming the Vi's fortieth core university member and the thirteenth country to represent sub-Saharan Africa in the network. The initiative was taken by UCC senior lecturer Camara Kwasi Obeng, a graduate of the Vi's online course on trade and poverty held last year.
UCC acquired full-fledged university status in 1971. Its objective is to provide quality education through programmes that challenge learners to be creative, innovative, and morally responsible citizens. It aims to develop its activities - teaching and training, research and outreach - in a manner that will allow it to respond effectively to the development needs of a changing world.
Within UCC, the Vi will cooperate with the Department of Economics, which offers undergraduate and graduate programmes featuring courses such as international trade theory and policy, and international finance and open-economy macroeconomics, among others. Current areas of research include trade and poverty, the revenue implications of trade liberalization, corporate tax competition and foreign direct investment (FDI), and South-South and North-South FDI.
UCC's participation in the Vi will be coordinated by Mr. Obeng, who holds a PhD in economics and is responsible for courses on international trade theory and policy, and international finance and open-economy macroeconomics. His research includes work on the impact of trade and financial liberalization on tariff revenue, output, foreign borrowing, income distribution and poverty.
A team of Mr. Obeng's colleagues will also participate in the university's cooperation with the Virtual Institute, namely:
- Vijay K. Bhasin, who teaches international trade, international finance, and macroeconomics;
- Samuel Kobina Annim, involved in teaching statistics, and research methods and computer applications;
- William Gabriel Brafu-Insaidoo, responsible for courses on the macroeconomy of Ghana, and on advanced microeconomics; and
- Emmanuel Ekow Asmah, who teaches macroeconomics and public sector economics.
The department will allocate staff time and expertise to the cooperation with the Vi and its members, dedicate library space to the publications provided by the Vi, create a link to the Vi on its website, and publicize Vi activities.
UCC is interested in strengthening its teaching and research on trade and development issues, and in undertaking policy-oriented research. In addition, the department wishes to run courses for participants from the subregion, and to collaborate with universities in the subregion in the area of research. The department's medium-term objective is to acquire school status, and to build a School of Economics at the university.
