African governments must invest in research – Prof Tagoe

African governments and university administrators must invest meaningfully into research to remain internationally competitive, Professor Michael Tagoe, the Acting Provost, College of Education, University of Ghana, said in Accra on Wednesday.

Prof Tagoe said the infrastructure of universities should be revamped to attract students from other African countries and elsewhere to broaden the frontier of knowledge in the continent.

The Acting Provost said this at a workshop on African Peace Building Network Grantee Research Methods, organized by the University of Ghana and the Social Science Research Council in African.

Speaking on the topic: “Why Research Matters: Relevance and Challenges,” Prof Tagoe said research outcomes must transform society and contribute to human capital development on the continent.

“Research conducted must always have some relevance to the socio-economic issues of a country and attempt to address a problem. The relevance of research is measured in terms of its valuableness and usefulness to society,” he said.

He urged African universities to institute chairs to attract excellent researchers to ensure excellence in research and innovation and as well ensure that doctoral students published a paper with their supervisors in peer-reviewed journals before they graduate.

Touching on collaborations to improve African universities, Prof Tagoe said the World Bank is working with African universities through the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) Impact project to meet global standards for quality of education and recruit students across the region.

The African Research Universities Alliance is in partnership with UK Research and Innovation to collaborate over the next three years to build Pan-African-UK Research.

Prof Tagoe said Ghana has made strides in improving research in its universities, stressing that early career grants were awarded to individual researchers for a period not exceeding one year to explore new ideas and expertise in research.

Ghana has invested in multidisciplinary grants for the promotion of cross-cutting disciplinary research between at least schools across more than one college within the university to improve research.

However, Ghana and other African universities like the South African ones, have established researchers and made investment in infrastructure to improve research in the region.

Research reveals that one of the ways to improve access to international funding and improve research productivity, was through interdisciplinary research which integrates information, data, techniques, tools, concepts and theories from two or more disciplines.

The Professor said the results from research could only be meaningful when they are placed at the service of development, converted into applications, and shared to ensure widespread benefits.

He said the need for African universities to become world-class research-intensive universities has gained traction in both developed and developing countries resulting in competition among universities as they strive towards excellence.

Research reveals that, majority of the research universities were perceived as elite universities and included in a top ranking globally in teaching, research and participating in global knowledge network.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings revealed that most of the top world class universities were in the developed world.

In Africa, the best ranked universities are found in South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, while others are in Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.

“Being a world class suggests a steadily growing ability to attract some of the world’s best students and researchers to the University.

“It means greater recognition of the University’s output globally, as well as greater versatility for University of Ghana staff and students”, Prof Tagoe said.

He called on African universities to meet their pledge of devoting one per cent of their Gross Domestic Product to research and development to improve quality and efficient research outcomes.

This, Prof Tagoe said, has been the bane affecting effective research in African universities.

Prof Olivia A. T. Frempong Kwapong, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Continuing and Education, University of Ghana and Board Chairperson of Ghana News Agency, commended organizers for initiating the workshop to strengthen the scope of knowledge in research among African Universities.

Prof Charity Akotia, Dean, School of Social Sciences, College of Humanities, University of Ghana, called for continuous collaborations with African universities to chart the path forward in addressing research-related problems.

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