A delegation from the University of Zululand (UniZULU) in South Africa visited the University of Media Arts and Communication (UniMAC) on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, to explore opportunities for academic partnership. The three-member delegation comprised Mr Zenzele P. Mdletshe, Manager of the International Relations Office, UniZULU, Dr Yolanda Nomusa Nkomo, lecturer at the Faculty of Commerce, Administration, and Law, UniZULU and Mr Molefe Moyahabo, Academic Champion in the Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Commerce, Administration, and Law, UniZULU. The delegation from UniZULU was received by a team of academic and non-academic staff of UniMAC led by Dr. Daniel Odoom, Dean of the Faculty of Integrated Communication Sciences (FICS).
At the academic partnership meeting which took place in the Council Chamber at the Institute of Journalism, South Legon Campus, the representatives from UniZULU expressed keen interest in partnering with the Department of Integrated Social Sciences (DISS) and FICS for research, teaching and student exchange programmes. “We take pride in being an African university, and we want to have more mutually beneficial collaborations with Universities in Africa, especially the kind that involves movement of people across borders,” Mr Zenzele said.
The Dean of FICS, who chaired the meeting expressed UniMAC’s willingness to collaborate with UniZULU to achieve mutually beneficial goals of promoting development in sub-Saharan Africa. “At UniMAC, we provide practical education to enable students to solve problems in the 21st century, and we take partnerships seriously because it is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – SDG 17,” Dr Odoom stated. He cited examples of the FICS’ collaborations with other universities in Africa and other parts of the world including the recently consummated tripartite relationship between UniMAC, Virginia Tech and the University of Cape Coast. Head of the Department of Integrated Social Sciences, Dr. Collins Adu-Bempah Brobbey, also in the meeting, mentioned that African universities like UniMAC and UniZULU must collaborate to overcome the multilayered challenges facing the African continent. Other officers of UniMAC in the meeting were Mr. Stephen Tindi, Programmes Coordinator, FICS, Mr. Kwabena Nkansah Simpeh, Lecturer, DISS, and Ms Perpetua Opoku-Agyemang, Assistant Registrar, Center for International Relations (CIR).
At the end of the meeting, representatives of both universities agreed to in the short term promote research collaborations between the two universities and to co-develop and run short courses which will entail student visits to Ghana and South Africa. In the long term, however, UniMAC and UniZULU plan to co-develop and run structured academic programmes in mutually beneficial fields. Further engagements between the two universities are scheduled to actualize the academic partnership.