The Executive Secretary of Vice Chancellors Ghana (VCG) undertook a one-week working visit to the German’s Rectors Conference- HRK, in Bonn Germany, to acquaint herself with the operations of HRK and to explore collaborative partnership arrangements in an effort to restructure and expand the mandate and mission of VCG to become relevant and more responsive to emerging issues in the higher education landscape. Vice Chancellors had approved for the Executive Secretary to undertake the visit to the HRK to study their operational model for possible emulation.
The visit which took place in Bonn from April 22-27 2024, saw the establishment of collaborations, strategies and future partnership arrangements in the areas of capacity building and training, research linkages and innovative actions.
The Executive Secretary held a meeting with the Secretary General of the HRK, Dr. Jens-Peter Gaul and also with critical members of the HRK team namely, Dr. Marijke Wahlers, the Deputy Secretary General and Head of Department, International Affairs, Alexandra Feisthauer, Head of project, HRK ADVANCE – Optimizing Governance and Processes of Internationalisation, Dr Rudolf Smolarczyk and with Dr. Thomas Bohm, Head of Section Africa and Middle East, International Students, Recognition, who facilitated the entire visit to the HRK.
She also met with various officials and representatives specifically, Ariane Brake, International Affairs, Africa, Near & Middle East, German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Officials of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Lena Leumer, – Centre for International Scientific Cooperation (KIWI), and Yvonne Visarius (Team Leader) Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education (DIES). Dr. Erik Hansalik, Head of Section, Africa, and Middle East in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, also met briefly with the Executive Secretary.
As part of the working visit, the Executive Secretary visited the University of Cologne one of the key partners within the Ghana North Rhine Westphalia Alliance. The Project Coordinator Dr. Georg Verweyen, explained to the Executive Secretary the objectives of the alliance. They further discussed ways to explore and strengthen the alliance, and enhance the full participation of Ghana’s Public Universities for their benefit.
Some immediate outcomes of the meeting are as follows.
- Directing access to information on calls for research partners for grant announcements.
- Providing access to DAAD/DIES Calls on mobility scholarships for disseminations to VCG member institutions.
- Developing capacity building-partnership arrangements for university leaders.
- Providing access to direct information on internationalization strategies and linkages.
- Providing access to general information on Global Higher Education.
- Contacting again all the German partners for further information on current/future calls for programmes etc. to establish VCG as a platform and actor for dissemination and informing universities on international programmes and funding
- Collecting data from universities of all possible contacts for such information (VC’s, deans, International Offices etc.)
- Collecting data on German/Ghanaian Alumni to present VCG as first partner also for German organisations and universities
- Discussing a strategy on German/Ghanaian cooperation within VCG
- Fostering agreements with DAAD-Office or/and Ghana/NRW Higher Education Alliance, or in future also HRK
- Supporting universities regarding Erasmus + European Mobility
- Establishing a fully functional Desk/Office of Linkages and Research Collaborations in the VCG to facilitate the Collaborative Research Linkages process.