Ghana (Takoradi Technical University) French embassy explores possible funding, collaboration with TTU
A three-member delegation from the Scientific and Higher Education Cooperation unit of the French Embassy in Ghana have visited Takoradi Technical University to explore possible project funding and collaborations between TTU and French Universities. The collaboration seeks to link some faculties and schools of TTU with French Universities which will come with possible funding for approved project proposals.
The Vice Chancellor of TTU, Rev. Prof. John Frank Eshun, in a meeting with the delegation expressed appreciation for the French Embassy’s visit to explore areas of collaboration for the mutual interest of TTU and French universities. Also at the meeting were the Registrar of TTU, Dr. Moses Maclean Abnory and Deans of concerned faculties including Faculty of Applied Arts, Engineering, CEGENDA, CELIB, IPELO among others.
Rev. Prof. Eshun appealed to the French Embassy to create exclusive concession for Technical Universities separate from the mainstream universities to allow more technical universities to participate and benefit from the Embassy’s collaboration and funding support.
“the mainstream universities are likely to dominate the opportunities if the opportunities are made open for all”, he said.
He however asked the Deans of the various faculties to carry out a search for the institution that will better fit their purpose and strategically choose the areas of interest to benefit from the project.
A member of the delegation, Dr. Florent Engelmann who is an Attaché for Scientific and Higher Education Cooperation at the French Embassy in Ghana, highlighting the rationale for the collaboration said it is to promote joint research.
“we are implementing higher education and regional projects and till now we have not worked with technical universities. We realized that there are a lot of things we can do with technical universities. This is the reason we have come here to establish contact to see how we can work together and to establish links between French Schools and Universities and their counterparts in Ghana. In fact the idea of the French Embassy is to collaborate to contribute to the development of the country through the implementation of joint research in higher education programmes“, he said.
Esther Clare Attionu who is the Nyansapo Project Officer at the French Embassy giving an overview of the project, hinted how an accepted project proposal could receive funding.
“we opened the call for possible grants and partnerships with French Universities but the management realized that most of the courses were from the general universities and not technical universities. Meanwhile the very topics of interest to the Embassy like the fashion, tourism and hospitality were not patronized, so we are visiting the Technical Universities to assure them of possible collaborations in these areas. We will be launching another call from 2023-2034 and we hope that these universities will revisit the call and build their areas of interest, find their French-partner-university to collaborate, write a proposal and after a successful scrutiny of proposals, they can win a grant . The current project had €40,000 which is running for two years but we are yet to sit to conclude on how much would be offered to each of these Technical Universities“, she said.
The visiting French Embassy delegation after their meeting with the Vice Chancellor, the Registrar and the Deans of concerned Faculties and schools were taken on a tour of the Jubilee Technical Training Centre as well as the Fashion Department.
The Vice Chancellor as a sign of friendship and on behalf of TTU presented Kente souvenirs to the French Embassy delegation.
