Pro-Vice Chancellor of UPSA, Professor Charles Barnor, giving the opening remarks
The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), in collaboration with Globethics.net, is hosting a four-day Ethics of Excellence Framework Conference and Pilot Training Workshop.
The workshop is being attended by participants from 18 universities across the country. It seeks to train stakeholders of higher educational institutions on university management and how to ensure academic integrity.
Professor Charles Barnor, Pro-Vice Chancellor of UPSA, who formally opened the meeting, said the promotion and design of ethical tools for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) would go a long way to improve on the governance of HEIs in Ghana and beyond.
“The degree of robustness of the tool will also set the foundation and initiate a journey towards achieving excellence in the governance structure of HEIs and invariably support a cadre of newly trained academics in the area of ethics assessment,” he said.
He said higher educational Institutions were the Institutions that train the future leaders of the nation adding “We, the stakeholders must ensure that there is decorum and sanity in our University campus”.
He added that senior administrators of the universities must ensure that they provide support to the management team to ensure that ethics was paramount in every aspect of the university’s activities.
He urged them to take on good initiatives in the right direction towards the betterment of the world.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor said as an Academic community, UPSA had values, standards and norms that govern the faculty, staff and students.
Doubling efforts
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in a speech delivered on his behalf virtually, urged actors in the nation’s tertiary educational institutions to redouble their efforts in the training of the critical man power needs of the country.
Professor Obiora Ike, Executive Director of Globethetics.net, also in a virtual message read on his behalf, said Globethics.net aims at ensuring that people in all regions of the world were empowered to reflect and act on ethical issues.
On his part, Reverend Dr Emmanuel Ansah, Globethics.net Ghana Country Representative, said the pilot workshop sought to equip participants with the tools and the capacity so that they would be able to assess their institutions on ethical values.
Madam Nadia Balgobin, a Consultant at Globethetics.net, said Globethetics.net supports institutions in their efforts to introduce ethical behaviour in their higher education institutions and supports the integration of relevant and contextual standards and structures.
