Faculty of Science and Environment Education Holds Annual Review Workshop
The Faculty of Science and Environment Education has held an end of year faculty review workshop at the DIS Conference Room, Mampong Asante Campus for its teaching, administrative and support staff on Monday, 23rd December, 2019
The Dean, Dr. J. K. Kuffour welcomed participants and indicated that the workshop had been organised to enable members to take stock of activities in 2019 and to strategise for the year 2020. He mentioned some achievements in the year 2019 which included research seminars for graduate students to present their research proposals, celebration of the Association of Africa Universities Week, World Toilet Day and two interactions with students.
The workshop facilitator, Very. Rev. Fr. Prof. John Appiah-Poku, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, took participants through the work of an Ethical Review Committee. He traced the history of ethics in research to the 1940s where medical experiments were conducted on thousands of concentration camp prisoners without their consent leading to permanent deformities or death. This, he said, sparked some public controversies leading to the establishment of a military tribunal that tried about 23 researchers. Subsequent to that trial, he added, the Nuremberg Code was established in 1948, stating that "The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential," making it clear that subjects should give consent and that the benefits of research must outweigh the risks. He emphasized that every research work involving human and/or animal subjects required ethical clearance.
Speaking on effective preparations towards promotion, he admonished participants to focus on the three major assessable areas for promotion notably promotion of knowledge, teaching and community service and to do more collaborative publications. He encouraged ‘junior’ academics to endeavour to be lead authors in collaborative research and publications.
At the review session, members noted the following developments at the departments:
- Creation of a support group to assist level 100 female students in the Department of Environmental Health and Sanitation Education.
- Institution of a scholarship scheme for needy brilliant students by a lecturer and
- Manufacturing of carrier bags from recycled ‘waste’ materials by a lecturer,  being used by students to package their teaching portfolio materials for assessment.
The Faculty Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Kutorglo outlined some planned activities for 2020 including completion of work on faculty database, second phase of a tracer study of graduating students from the Faculty, and introduction of peer mentoring for students.
Present at the workshop were teaching, finance, administrative and clerical staff of the faculty, Nation Builders Corps (NAPCO) and National Service personnel.
