The Director of IERIS, Prof. Ephraim Aveah Nsoh, affirmed his outfit's responsibility to manage the university's research component, and therefore the seminar was fulfilling in part that obligation. He remarked that "IERIS, therefore, tries to equip the staff of the institute, the university as a whole, and postgraduate students with the necessary research skills to do their work effectively."

A Lecturer on sabbatical from the Centre of Investigative Anti-Racism Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, Prof. George Sefa Dei, who was the resource person for the seminar, underlined innovative ways and strategies for conducting enriched and efficient academic research. He underscored the importance of students knowing the steps and guidelines needed in developing a good proposal to eventually facilitate the writing of a good dissertation.

He encouraged postgraduate students present at the seminar to make a concerted effort to conduct research that contributes to curriculum reform in ways that help students comprehend and overcome the difficulties they confront in their daily lives.  

Prof. Dei urged universities to focus on being relevant to communities by providing ideas and knowledge as well as assisting in the resolution of problems. He said, “The communities think the university is only for the elite because they do not see the social impact the university makes.”

The facilitator walked participants through academic steps in thesis proposal writing to provide graduate students with a sense of theoretical, philosophical, and methodological grounding. He discussed the specifics of using theory and what students should watch out for when reviewing relevant literature for their proposed study.

He guided students on how to construct a good research proposal that is consistent with approaches to data analysis, as well as why and how the technique chosen best matched the planned research project. He underlined that the planned study's political, ethical, and other societal consequences, as well as concerns, needed to be expressed in the proposal.