By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, Aug. 22, GNA – Professor Rosemond Boohene, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), says there is a need to scale up the training of the police to reinforce Ghana’s security against all forms of emerging global threats.
“Globally, there is an increasing realisation that while the traditional police training served us well, it is inadequate to meet the changing nature of crime and global developments in terrorism and counterintelligence operations,” she said.
Thus, she emphasised that the country needed more competent professionals to meet the security and terrorism challenges within and beyond its borders.
Prof. Boohene was speaking at the 2021/2022 distance education matriculation ceremony to formally admit freshmen and women from the Police Academy, Health Training Institutions and College of Distance Education.
In all, the school admitted 213 cadet officers from the Police Academy, 43 health personnel and 9,168 students of the College of Distance Education to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Peace and Security, Health, Education, Business and Social Sciences.
Prof. Boohene observed that societal problems had changed and the limits of traditional police training had been exceeded for which reason the international community, including Ghana, ought to improve its security abilities and institute tougher security policies.
“The University of Cape Coast has taken the lead in this direction to support the efforts of the Ghana Police Administration to train our law enforcement men,” she said.
She said the curriculum was based on the philosophy that police training was more effective when professional skills and tactical training were combined with academic and intellectual education.
On health, the Pro Vice-Chancellor said the university decided to run health-related PhD programmes for Health Training Institutions after the Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHETI) made a request in 2018.
She affirmed the school’s commitment to introducing more health-related programmes to train competent human resources to boost quality healthcare delivery and expedite the universal health coverage agenda.
Prof Boohene indicated to the new students that UCC was committed to helping them achieve their dream while urging them to study hard and take all academic work seriously.
“Dear students, take note that the University of Cape Coast places a very high premium on your education. We expect that you attend lectures regularly to tap knowledge from the pool of professors, senior lecturers and lecturers and researcher fellows.
“Your primary objective for coming to this University is to study hard towards the attainment of your degree or diploma. Always remember that you need to work hard on this journey, and that, hard work never kills,” she implored.
Touting the achievement of the school, she said the Times Higher Education World University Ranking had declared UCC in 2022 as the topmost ranked university in Ghana and West Africa, fourth on the African continent and first in the world in terms of research influence.
“You have enrolled at a moment when the University of Cape Coast is receiving a lot of recognition globally. This is an indication of the duty bestowed on us to live up to the expectation of being a University of Cape Coast student,” she added.
GNA