The University of Guyana’s (UG) Centre for Communica-tions Studies (CCS) will benefit from a US$300,000 grant over the next three years, following the signing of a Memorandum of Under-standing (MOU) between the university and the University of Ohio last Thursday.
The grant is provided by the United States Agency for International Development/ Higher Education for Dev-elopment (HED)/ American Council on Education. It will help to finance several initiatives, including staff development, the purchase of new equipment, the redesign of the curriculum; professional media upgrade seminars and student exchange programs. This comes out of an initiative known as Project Phoenix, “a multi faceted project for the resuscitation and restructuring of the centre.”
The partnership was forged between the two universities after the Ohio University won a competitive bid to strengthen the centre. The agreement was officially launched at a simple ceremony held at the Georgetown Club, where acting Vice Chancellor Dr Tota Mangar and Professor Vibert Cambridge, from the University of Ohio, signed the MOU. Cambridge, Guyanese-born, is one of the key players in this initiative.
Professor Cambridge pointed out that this programme is the latest collaboration between the two universities in a relationship that goes back 25 years. He highlighted that one of the major benefits of this latest initiative is the upgrading of the communications curriculum at UG, which he said was necessary. He identified other universities such as the UWI campus at Mona and universities in Puerto Rico and Suriname which have recently updated their communications curriculum to meet the needs of its students and the wider society. He also highlighted that the exchange programme in which three faculty members will be going to the University of Ohio and graduate students will be coming to Guyana in return will be of great benefit to both universities and for the personnel involved as well. Another major positive is the improvement of the library facilities available to students in the programme. Meanwhile, he said that as part of this programme visits are being made to different media houses to determine the various needs of these houses and that of the society.
Acting Vice Chancellor Mangar expressed gratitude for this latest collaboration and said that it was further testimony of the good relationships shared between the two universities. He said that such this project was particularly appreciated because of its relevance to the needs of the UG and the country as a whole.
Director of the CCS Dr Paloma Mohamed-Martin traced how the communications programme has progressed since 2006, when the University of Guyana was forced to temporarily suspend its intake of students for the course due to a severe staff shortage. She opined that the CCS has moved from such low depths to a place where the programme is ready to reach new heights. According to her, not only will the curriculum be updated but new opportunities will be made available such as the two new post-graduate programmes that will be offered in Strategic and Technical communication. She also stated that students at the Tain campus of the university will benefit from this collaboration.
Further, Dean of the School of Social Sciences Dr Michael Scott in welcoming the venture emphasized that this was not a one-sided agreement. He stated that the University of Ohio will also benefit from whatever expertise UG had. Nevertheless he was delighted at the possibility of the Centre having access to more state-of-the art technology which would better serve its students.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Guyana John Jones underscored the crucial roles of universities in their respective societies. He said that the collaboration between UG and the University of Ohio would be of benefit to both institutions since they could learn from each other. He was optimistic that at the end of the three-year collaboration, both institutions will experience both visible and intangible improvements.
