Actors’ Interpretations and Organisational Change Processes: The Case of the University of Ghana’s Strategic Vision of Becoming a ’World Class University’

Despite its seemingly subjective and ambiguous nature, the notion of a World Class University (WCU) appears both established and widely discussed in higher education discourses over the last decade. At the same time, some scholars have argued that the notion does not fit or refer to universities in Africa. In the year 2010, the University of Ghana which is the largest university in the country, agreed upon a strategic vision for the university emphasizing the notion of WCU. In this regard the question emerges, what this WCU vision at the University of Ghana actually means in practice, since it is not prescribed by the university’s leadership but left open for interpretation, operationalization and further implementation by all members of the organization. Using an interdependency management perspective, this paper examines how university leadership and academic staff interpret the WCU strategic vision at the University of Ghana and to what extent organizational change processes are the result of the implementation of the university’s WCU strategy. Keywords: World Class University, management, academics, interdependency managemen

Potential effects of warmer worms and vectors on onchocerciasis transmission in West Africa

Development times of eggs, larvae and pupae of vectors of onchocerciasis (Simulium spp.) and of Onchocerca volvulus larvae within the adult females of the vectors decrease with increasing temperature. At and above 25C,the parasite could reach its infective stage in less than 7 days when vectors could transmit after only two gonotrophic cycles. After incorporating exponential functions for vector development into a novel blackfly population model, it was predicted that fly numbers in Liberia and Ghana would peak at air temperatures of 29C and 34C, about 3C and 7C above current monthly averages, respectively; parous rates of forest flies (Liberia) would peak at 298C and of savannah flies (Ghana) at 308C. Small temperature increases (less than 28C) might lead to changes in geographical distributions of different vector taxa. When the new model was linked to an existing framework for the population dynamics of onchocerciasis in humans and vectors, transmission rates and worm loads were projected to increase with temperature to at least 338C. By contrast, analyses of field data on forest flies in Liberia and savannah flies in Ghana, in relation to regional climate change predictions, suggested, on the basis of simple regressions, that 13–41% decreases in fly numbers would be expected between the present and before 2040. Further research is needed to reconcile these conflicting conclusions

Actors Interpretations and Change Process : The Case of University of Ghana's Strategic Vision of becoming a World Class University .

Over the past few decades, it has been argued that, the changes in governace modes in higher education institutions is partly inspired by the New Public Management (NPM) ideas. This has made universities soley responsible for defining their own legitimate goal and position itself through setting strategies. In the year 2010, the University of Ghana (UG) which is the largest university in the country agreed upon a strategic vision for the university emphasizing the notion of becoming a World Class University (WCU). This notion has a certain meaning within the literature in the sense that, amongst other things in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University s (SJTU) ranking, it is being identified with top research universities. At the sametime, some scholars have argued that the notion does not fit or refer to universities in Africa. Using an interdependency management as a perspective allows us understand how leaders and academics at UG initiate, mutually coordinate and depend on each other to allow for change to occur without university leadership imposing on the academics and vice versa. Hence, this master s thesis investigates how university leadership and academics interprets the WCU strategic vision at the UG and to what extent are organizational change processes at the University of Ghana the result of the implementation of the university s WCU strategy. The analysis is baded on the reserachers own constructed model with an insight from interdependency management. This enabled the study to categorize and assume that, academic interpretation of UG s WCU is towards academic excellence, as magement interpretation emphasizes relevancs and problem solving. Using semi-structured interview and document analysis aided the study to answer the research questions. The findings of this study reveals that, whereas management interpreted UG s WCU of becoming relevance, academics interpretation of UG s WCU moved away from the assumption of academic excellence to using their research activities to impact and affect the development of society. Hence the dominant interpretation of the two core actors was emphasizing the need to strengthen and improve the relationship between the university and the Ghanaian society implying that, the intention is to make the university more relevant in its academic activities. Despite the relative short time of UG s WCU strategy, our indicators of the four sectors of change (researcch, academic programme, human resource policies and internal governance ) gave some what a clear indication of the direction of organisational change emphasizing the strengthening of relevance and problem solving i.e becoming responsiveness and having a better link/connection with the Ghanaian society