Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, has urged the Governing Board of the University of Ghana to be globally competitive in the pursuit of higher education in the country.

“You need to compete with the rest of the world and be abreast of globalization and its impact on the University of Ghana to achieve its vision of becoming a world-class research intensive university,” he said.

The Minister said on Monday when he inaugurated a 20-member Governing Board of the University and administered the oath of office and oath of secrecy to the board members in Accra with the mandate to manage the affairs of the institution.

Dr Adutwum said being competitive would come with a curriculum education that met the needs of industry players across the globe.

The Minister assured the Board of government’s commitment to involve the leadership of the Universities in the development of new high school curriculum for their inputs to improve teaching and learning in schools.

He charged them to be interested in the general education of students, and fashioned innovative ways to enhance teaching in the University in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic for improved outcomes.

Dr Adutwum urged the Board to intensify their Corporate Social Responsibility activities by offering scholarship schemes to needy but brilliant students in the area they operate to broaden the horizon of higher education.

He expressed government’s appreciation to the past members of the board for their dedicated service to the University, and urged the new board to establish a good working relationship with their predecessors while providing the needed policy direction and support to advance academic work.

Justice Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo, a Former Chief Justice and Chairperson of the Governing Board thanked government for the confidence reposed in them and assured of heeding to the tenets of their mandates.

She pledged on behalf of the Board to reposition the University to be viable and relevant to national development, saying, “We hope to bring significant progress at the end of our tenure”.

The Board is made up of representatives of the various stakeholders including the University Teachers Association of Ghana, Alumni, Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, government nominees, Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, Graduate Students' Association of Ghana, Tertiary Education Workers’ Union, and Students’ Representative Council.

The Board is expected to comply with the functions of a board as stipulated in the University of Ghana Act, 2010 (Act 806).