Civic Engagement/Corporate Responsibilty Profile

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 Introduction
 The Regent University College of Science and Technology is a private tertiary institution located in Accra, Ghana. It was registered in September 2003 as a company limited by guarantee. It received accreditation to operate as a tertiary institution in 2004, and in January 2005, it started operation with the intake of 30 pioneer students. It currently has 1,700 students and has graduated over 1,300 students. The University has four satellite campuses located at Dansoman, Fadama, Lartebikoshie and the McCarthy Hill. The latter is soon to be developed into a purpose built campus. All campuses are in Accra.

1.2 Vision and Mission
The mission of Regent-Ghana is to produce purpose-driven human resource committed to socio-economic and spiritual renewal, with science and technology expertise in a competitive global environment. The University community shares in the vision of the Founder and President, Prof. E. Kingsley Larbi, to establish and maintain one of the leading and finest institutions in the world. This understanding informs and fashions the investment we make in our students, faculty, and supporting staff. Motivated by a dedicated and visionary leadership, ICT-driven curricula, and Christian ethical values, we aim at having our students fully prepared to effectively spearhead national and industrial development anywhere in the global community.

1.3 Schools
Regent-Ghana has three Schools, namely, Regent School of Business and Economics (SBE), Regent School of Informatics and Engineering (SIE) and Regent School of Theology, Ministry and Human Development (STM &HD). Regent Ghana also has the Institute of Languages and General Studies with a Centre for Academic Writing. A number of interdisciplinary programmes cross the boundaries between schools and disciplines.

1.4 Affiliations
Locally, Regent-Ghana is currently affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi and the Trinity Theological Seminary at Legon, Accra. Its Human Development and Psychology programme (undergraduate) is certified by the University College of Education, Winneba. Regent-Ghana’s international partners include Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Clarion University of Pennsylvania, USA; Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences, (Germany); Lulea University of Technology (Sweden); Wheelock College, Boston, (USA); and University of Applied Sciences, Umwelt Campus, Birkenfeld, Germany. The University is also a member of the Conference of Heads of Private Universities, Ghana.

1.5 Governance
The principal governing body of the University is the University Council. Authority in purely academic matters lies with the Senate (Senatus Academicus). The Regent Ghana Students' Union (RGSU) provides a variety of services and facilities for the student population. The RGSU parliament represent students on various committees and organizations, both within and outside the University.

2.0 Various Business Engagements
A business thrives on the needs of its society. Regent University College of Science and Technology has therefore embarked on civic engagement/corporate social responsibility initiatives to enhance educational facilities in rural areas in the country. The University College has upgraded various educational facilities in some rural communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana over the past four years. The following are worth noting.

2.1 Projects for Adimadim Kyenku Larbi Township

2.1.1 School Project for Adimadim Kyenku Larbi
Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi D/A Junior High School, is one of about 100 Junior High schools in the Suhum District in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi has about 800 inhabitants. The village has no potable water and no electricity. The inhabitants are mostly farmers. The school block of the Adimadim Kyenku Larbi Junior High School (JHS) remained uncompleted for many years. The deplorable state of the classrooms, lack of adequate qualified teachers, poverty, among others, led to the school often scoring low percentage passes in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), sometimes scoring as poorly as 0%. Regent University College of Science and Technology took steps to complete the school building and provided other facilities needed to enhance teaching and learning. The first step the University College took was to help remold and plaster the block. The doors, windows and fascia board bearing the name of the school were all fixed. Other facilities/items provided for the school were:
• A four-seater water closet (toilet facility)
• Two qualified teachers engaged by the University to augment the work of the two employed by the government.
• Tables and chairs for classroom • A generator regularly fueled by the University College that supports evening studies
• Further arrangements have been concluded to get the school enlisted in the one-laptop-per-child partnership programme between rlg communications (an ICT organization) and the Government of Ghana.

There are also plans to provide a kindergarten, a school clinic and other needed infrastructure for the school.

Results of the Intervention at Kyenku-Larbi Junior High School
As a result of Regent-Ghana’s intervention, the BECE results of the Kyenku Larbi JHS improved from a 26% pass in previous year’s examination to an astounding 71% in 2011. In 2012 the school achieved an impressive 95% pass rate in the BECE, a significant improvement from the 71% pass rate it recorded in 2010. Following this impressive performance, a neighboring Junior High School has been closed down by the government and its students transferred to the Regent-Ghana sponsored school where they are expected to receive better attention.

2.1.2 Electricity for Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi
A delegation from Regent University began advocacy with the Suhum District, where Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi is located, to ensure that Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi is connected to the national grid. A delegation from Regent University and community leaders of Kyenku Larbi made a representation to the District Chief Executive on several occasions and also petitioned the Electricity Company of Ghana in the Eastern region on the need to connect Kyenku-Larbi to the national grid to enable the educational support yield good result and also to transform the lives of the community members in terms of good health, good education and improved economic status. The intervention yielded positive results. Work on the connectivity of Adimadim Kyenku-Larbi to the national grid commenced in June, 2012 and is expected to be completed by December 2013.

2.2 Larteh Projects
Larteh is located in the Akuapem North District on a narrow stretch of the Akuapem ridge in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The estimated population is about 10,000 people. The community is situated on a mountain top at an altitude of about 300m above sea level.

2.2.1 Larteh School Project
The needs of the schools at Larteh came to the President & CEO’s attention following his invitation by the Chief of Larteh for the 2011 festival celebration. Consequently, Ms Nancy Ansah, now Acting Deputy Registrar at the office of the President, was tasked to assess the needs of the schools. The President & CEO then embarked on a fact-finding mission to verify the needs assessment report. During the festival, the President & CEO and the Headmistress of the Larteh Methodist Junior High School (JHS) met and from the meeting, it came to light that a number of computers and their accessories donated by a philanthropist, were still in their boxes because there was not enough money to furnish the computer laboratory. To remedy this situation, the University paid the needed money to get furniture for the computer library. The University Management inspected the library block, and partitioned it into two; library and computer laboratory; and provided furniture for both facilities. Regent-Ghana also refurbished the headmistress’ office as well as the staff common room. A brand new computer and printer were also donated to the school. The computer laboratory was subsequently networked to enable students access the internet. The Headmistress, staff and students have confirmed that the intervention has improved the school tremendously compared to the state of other schools in the town. The BECE result for 2012 improved to 74% from the previous year’s of 45%. The University also initiated remedial classes at the Methodist JHS, to help residents of Larteh who had to re-sit the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

2.2.2 The Larteh Water Project
Regent University College, led by its President & CEO was concerned about the acute water problem that confronts the inhabitants of Larteh Akuapem, and its attendant effects on education of children, especially the girl child, productivity and the health of the residents. Regent University College therefore secured technical assistance from World Vision International and a team visited Larteh on 2nd February, 2012, to assess the situation. The team met the Paramount Chief of Larteh and Omanhene of Akuapem Guan Traditional Area and the Chief of Larteh Kubease. The Chiefs led the team to the water bodies in the town for the assessment exercise. The assessment report recommended the re-engineering of existing water bodies to make them easily accessible and hygienic and also to build more boreholes for the town. A big spring called Abununkumi, which in the 1950s was tapped to the town to serve the people, will be refurbished to provide water for the town. This will have enormous impact on the education of children, especially the girl child, as she will not have to walk far in search of water at the expense of her academic work. Fundraising for this project is underway with support from the Larteh Development Committee.

Financial implications for the various options of the Larteh Water Project are as follows


Intervention 1		 Development of Esite Spring Source $ 7,150.00
Intervention 2 Drilling and Installation of Hand Pumps (9 bore holes) $ 67,450.00
Intervention 3 Development of Aburunkumi Spring and taping it to town $152,087.50
Total cost of provision of potable water to Larteh   $226,687.00

2.3 Scholarship for Needy Students

2.3.1 Scholarship for Regent Ghana Students
Regent University believes the development of the human resource requirement of a nation requires collective responsibility, and that anyone (from primary to tertiary) who is brilliant but needy must be supported at all cost. It is from this background that the Regent Scholarship fund was instituted to support students, who are academically meritorious and demonstrate financial need. Since 2005, the University has given scholarships to the tune of $200,000 to help needy but academically excellent students gain access to higher education.

2.3.2 Scholarships for Senior High School Students
Regent-Ghana has supported 20 children, mostly girls who were identified to be brilliant but needy, through their secondary education. Selection was based on solicitations from parents to the University to help educate their children. Though this arrangement is not a structured project of the University, exceptionally brilliant children, who without the University’s support would have not been able to attend Senior High School, have been supported under the scholarship fund to gain access to secondary education. Some of these children have gained admissions into universities in Ghana.

2.4 Health and Fitness
In order to promote physical and spiritual health, the Education Support Services department does not renege on its responsibilities to ensure the wellbeing of its students and the entire university. Besides gym workouts, the department organizes clean-up exercises at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Kaneshie and Mamprobi Polyclinics and other public health facilities in the country. Clean up exercises are an integral part of the academic calendar.

2.5 Student Internships
It is part of the responsibilities of the Educational Support Services department to also arrange practical industrial placement/ internship. Letters are sent out to organizations in search of places for students. The University also receives requests from organizations for various internships and attachments. Such organizations range from banking and financial institutions, private companies who are into products and services, government set-ups to non-governmental organizations. Generally, the overall appraisal has been good. Positive feedback has been received from the supervisors concerning students’ punctuality, communication skills, regularity, team work, maturity and initiatives.

2.6 Seminars/workshops
As a way of supporting classroom learning with practical experience, the Educational Support Services department invites experienced and well resourced guests from industries. The seminars cover topics on health, relationships, entrepreneurship, corporate governance, leadership, communication skills, educational financing, graduate labour issues, preparing for the job market, choosing a life partner, information technology usage, First Aid, career development, among others.

2.7 MBA Practitioners’ Forum
There are several business opportunities in Ghana that many people cannot discern. There are many workplace issues that classroom work does not expose students to. Regent-Ghana, in order to ensure that our MBA students enhance the worth of their certificates, instituted the practitioners’ forum, with the objective of facilitating a dialogue between Academia (theory of business management) and the practical challenges of Ghanaian business practitioners and to engender the utilisation of these challenges as research material. The forum comprises two sessions – a presentation by the guest speaker and an interactive session between the speaker and participants. Every quarter successful entrepreneurs and top-level executives from various fields are invited to speak to the students. Some of the topics discussed at past fora include; attracting foreign investment from Asia to a developing economy: challenges and critical success factors; the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission; how to identify opportunities in the market place and Building a Successful Business: Creativity and Perseverance.

2.8 Public Lectures
The University College organizes public lectures on themes surrounding its core mission and values. Usually these lectures are addressed by renowned scholars and practitioners in the particular field of study. One of such public lectures was delivered by Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollenu, a Technical Group Leader and Senior Robotics Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. The theme was “Great adventures on the surface of Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and Phoenix Lander”. The purpose of this lecture was to give Ghanaians the opportunity to interact with a son of the nation on one of the most important scientific adventures of our time and to contribute to science education and exploration discourse in the country. The lecture was attended by over 300 people from academia, industry, media and the general public.

3.0 Conclusion
Through the above various civic, societal and community engagements, Regent University College makes its existence meaningful to its community and contributes to making academia, community and industry collaborate as partners for the holistic development of Ghana

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