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The paper discusses quality assurance in the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana. The University is a public funded institution established by an act of parliament; Act 830, 2011. As a newly established public funded University, quality assurance plays a central role in satisfying the requirements of stakeholders on the supply and demand sides of higher education, most importantly the regulatory environment--National Accreditation Board and the National Council for Tertiary Education. The paper discusses how the University manages quality assurance in its operations to bring about continuous improvement in teaching and learning. The paper discusses quality assurance as managed in the University--the successes, challenges and the way forward. The paper discusses some challenges that need critical intervention in the management of quality assurance in the University. These include the scenario where some staff have little understanding of quality assurance issues. Some staff also perceive quality assurance as a tool for victimising staff who fall short of quality standards. The issues discussed are very insightful partly because they come from experiences gathered in the design and implementation of quality assurance structures in a newly established university setting. The experiences shared in this paper would be very helpful to other newly established universities in the management of quality assurance. The paper recommends that the Management of the University needs to sensitise staff on quality assurance as a mandatory accreditation requirement and a tool for continuously enhancing quality standards.

This paper examined how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the work of university administrative and professional staff in Ghana. The pandemic has affected higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the world in the areas of teaching, learning, research and the provision of administrative support services. In this paper, we used survey data and in-depth interview transcripts to describe how a selection of administrative and professional staff from eight public universities in Ghana are affected. The survey targeted members of the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) which is made up of non-teaching Senior Members of the public universities. We found that the work of university administrators in Ghana was mainly office based with little or no virtual working schedules or platforms. We, therefore, predict a drastic shift from office-based working to blended-working schedules among university administrative and professional staff in the post- COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ghana, the agricultural sector is climate-dependent and susceptible to threatening impacts of climate change, yet, little is known about climate change adaptation in rural farming communities. This article examines the effects of, and local adaptation response to, climate change in rural farming communities in the Jaman North District of Ghana. Using meteorological data, changes in rainfall and temperature over the past 30 years were analyzed. In addition, social research methods were used to analyse interviews and household survey data on climate change impacts on, and adaption responses of rural communities. Results showed that the changing weather patterns, in the form of erratic rainfall and increasing temperatures, have become an additional burden to rural farming communities who are already faced with limited level of mechanization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]