Stakeholders at the ceremony agreed that internationalisation had a key role to play in transforming Africa's higher education and research with the focus on Africa's priority needs.
Internationalisation is a strategic, coordinated process that seeks to align and integrate policies and programmes to position colleges and universities as more globally oriented and internationally connected institutions.

Prof Goski Alabi, President of Laweh Open University, Ghana, insisted that partnerships with global universities should not be done blindly but must align with the goals of the respective institutions and countries to address their peculiar challenges.
She said governments must work to remove hurdles such as visa challenges and financial constraints to facilitate activities with partner universities globally.
To that end, she has called for national budgetary allocations to facilitate the internationalisation agenda.

The iPart Week celebration seeks to strengthen existing partnerships with global universities and build new relationships to contribute to advancing knowledge and enhancing the visibility and internationalisation agenda of UCC.

The celebration is on the theme: "Re-examining our historical identity within the context of internationalisation of higher education," and is being attended by scores of representatives from universities across the world.
It is expected to present numerous opportunities for studying abroad, where final-year students and national service persons will receive information from major partners from Europe, the USA, UK, China, among others.

Prof Alabi argued that African universities, in their internationalisation agenda, must begin to recognise and appreciate the intellectual efforts of their faculties as they instil and diversify their curriculum.

She observed that many institutions in Africa did not recognise the research works of their staff unless they were published in "indexed Western or international" journals, a situation she noted, eroded confidence in their research output.
She also entreated institutions to adapt to change and leverage technological flexibilities to advance their cause while encouraging regional collaborations, particularly intra-Africa mobility.

Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the Vice Chancellor of UCC, touted the school's spectacular achievements, particularly in the last four years, and commended the university's international partners for their contributions to the achievements.
He underscored the university's commitment to the internationalisation agenda, emphasising that the move was vital for exchanging fresh knowledge and perspectives for societal transformation and individual development. "Currently, UCC maintains over 125 active partnership agreements with universities worldwide.

"Our internationalisation strategy is grounded in the belief that higher education institutions must serve as primary agents in training and fostering global citizens within an increasingly globalising world, facilitated by cross-cultural exchanges among faculty, staff, and students," he said.

Prof Samuel Bert Boadi-Kusi, Dean of the Office of International Relations, UCC, underscored the benefits of making universities international but insisted that any such move should be tailored to address peculiar situations in the respective institutions and countries.

He noted that UCC had been deliberate about its internationalisation efforts, resulting in several activities happening at all levels including students, staff and faculty mobility, summer schools, joint conferences, and joint grant applications and research.
He said the university had made internationalisation one of the critical pillars of its Cooperate Strategic Plan (2023 -2027) and had developed an Internationalisation Policy in furtherance of that.

"Similarly, we have developed a Regionalisation Policy with the help of ACECOR (DLI-7) to give meaning to our South- South collaborations. By implementing these policies, we are working to improve internationalisation in its various forms in UCC.

"In all these efforts, the welfare of our international students and faculty remains a priority on our agenda," Prof Boadi- Kusi stated.

Rev John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister of Education, commended the management of UCC for the initiative to host key partners from across the world to explore new collaborations.
He indicated that education was the surest strategy for the development of nations and pledged his Ministry's support for UCC's internationalisation efforts.

Prof Abdulwahab Olasupo Egbewole, Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Nigeria, said institutions must focus on quality partnerships and avoid those which were exploitative.