TAMIU Signs International Agreement with Ghana Baptist University College
Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) has signed an agreement with a university in Ghana to promote activities of mutual interest to the two institutions.
Dr. Peter Haruna, professor of Public Administration and director of TAMIU’s Master of Public Administration program, recently traveled to Kumasi, Ghana on behalf of TAMIU to make the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ghana Baptist University College (GBUC) official.
The main purpose of the MOU is to provide opportunities for academic and professional cooperation between the two institutions, Dr. Haruna explained.
“The Agreement also allows for the institutions to share knowledge, develop identified and relevant knowledge products for publication, teaching and learning purposes,” he said, “It also promotes academic cooperation as well as faculty and student exchanges,” he said.
GBUC is a small, growing and mostly regional university in the west African nation of Ghana, similar to TAMIU, Dr. Haruna explained. Its Division of Research, Innovation and Partnership is pursuing international partnerships with small to medium-size institutions to enrich their curriculum and enhance career and employment opportunities for their graduates.
“As a small, liberal arts university GBUC has an international focus similar to TAMIU’s internationalization initiative,” Haruna said, “It has already entered into a series of international collaborations and affiliations with Sumy State University in Ukraine and Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom.”
As part of the Agreement, TAMIU plans to invite Dr. John Atibila, an award-winning environmental expert and GBUC’s director of research, innovation and partnership, to co-teach a signature course on sustainability at TAMIU in Spring 2020, Dr. Haruna said.
“In the medium to long run, we plan to establish student exchange programs that will expose students on both sides to different socio-cultural perspectives,” he said, “The agreement will eventually lead to the creation of an African studies course or program that will enrich and strengthen TAMIU’s undergraduate and graduate curriculum.”
The agreement is timely because it responds to student interest on both campuses in international and global affairs, Haruna said.
“TAMIU students will be exposed to the fastest growing but least known continent and its people and cultures at a time of intense international engagement and global awareness,” he said, “The MOU expands TAMIU’s and GBUC’s international initiatives by seeking research, scholarship and teaching opportunities for faculty and students beyond their familiar surroundings and in other cultural settings as they pursue knowledge in their respective disciplines.
For more information, please contact Haruna at 326.2613, email pharuna@tamiu.eduor visit offices located in the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center, room 301C. University office hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Watch GBUC officials celebrate the new initiative with TAMIU.