The Association of Commonwealth Universities was pleased to co-host – alongside the British Council – a delegation of vice-chancellors from Ghana from 26-29 November.

Throughout their visit, the VCs and university representatives were able to take part in discussions related to their own unique challenges and priorities and this information is helping the ACU to develop programmes to continue to meet the needs of Ghanaian universities.

Honourable Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Ghana, said: 'This visit was a fabulous experience for all involved and we were treated to really useful and inspiring content, as well as an open discussion of our needs and how we can work together in future to address these.

'I was very impressed by the open and honest approach that the ACU take and by their efforts to truly understand issues from a Ghanaian perspective. We were particularly excited by the ACU's 'Developing the Next Generation of Researchers' workshop and look forward to being able to run this in Ghana very soon to inspire leaders of the future.'

Some other topics of conversation included:

• The need to increase PhD production within Ghana linked to their planned expansion of the system and the creation of new technical universities
• Supporting research management and research uptake
• Supporting innovation and links to business and industry
• Increasing the availability of pedagogic training

The ACU's Director of Programmes, Ben Prasadam-Halls commented: 'On behalf of all at the ACU, I would like to thank the Minister and all the delegates for such an interesting and productive conversation. We are proud of the very rich vein of ACU activity with our Ghanaian members and look forward to progressing the conversation about how we can engage further to jointly develop and deliver new programmes to serve the Higher Education sector in Ghana.'