By : Mohamed Sahr
University of Sierra Leone Vice-Chancellor and Principal explained his four years of successes and challenges on Thursday 17th November 2022 at the university secretariat Tower Hill, Freetown.
Brigadier General Professor Foday Sahr, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone said in alignment with his supportive teams, they had done several things including the review of the university curriculum across all faculties, the introduction of new programs particularly to respond to the societal needs, the introduction of an E-Learning Platform to increase visibility within the communities thereby bringing education to the door-steps of the people. “I had successfully built two studios; one at Fourah Bay College, one at the Institute of Public Administration and Management as a way of enhancing outreach programs especially in the provinces and Freetown by extension,” Professor Foday Sahr said.
Professor Sahr said at the initial stage of his administration, he had established a Strategic Planning and Directorate of Quality Assurance to enhance effective and efficient lectures as well as monitoring of lecturers across the three campuses as a way of competing with international best policies on education.
He revealed that the E-Learning Programs serve both as hybrid and virtual forums where students within the constituent colleges would have massive benefits from this new trend; adding that they had done an effective division of certain faculties for Fourah Bay College, the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COHMAS)
Professor Foday Sahr said they had established the Faculty of Public Health and Infectious Disease and the Faculty of Medical Laboratory, Medicine and Diagnostic, including the Faculty of Nursing at Midwifery as well as the Faculty of Medical Science and Dentistry. He said there are only two dentists in the entire country; noting that they have to train more dentists in the coming academic year to cushion the needs of society.
He affirmed that the diploma students especially at the Institute of Public Administration and Management had already been taken to another campus at Kingdom as a way of reducing congestion. “COHMAS had done tremendously well by exploiting their internally generated fund,” Professor Foday Sahr said.
He disclosed that the University of Sierra Leone has a working policy adopted in research formulation; noting that every infrastructure at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences was from internally generated revenue. He said the University of Sierra Leone pays a premium for research projects that had been instituted across the three campuses.
Professor Foday Sahr said a lot had been done on infrastructural developments, especially at Fourah Bay College; he commended the leadership of Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Lawrence Kamara for his remarkable strives in terms of maintaining standards.
When talking about the Re-engineering Agenda, Professor said the diploma and certificate programs at IPAM and Fourah Bay College have to be under one canopy called the University of Sierra Leone Community College. “They are going to be members of the University of Sierra Leone though not necessarily Fourahbites,” he said.
Professor Sahr revealed that they have to officially train pharmacy technicians in the coming academic year mainly for students at COHMAS in terms of defeating the purpose of the job market. He said they had already designed a way of taking lecturers from the nation’s capital to Bo City on a weekends basis to deliver lectures to the students in Bo.
He said they had also established a research office in Freetown; adding that the Institute of Public Administration and Management had opened a research basket. Revealing that the fund the Institution would generate; has to be used to source any research projects in due course. “The core mandate of any learning institution or university is teaching, engaging in research and participating in community service,” Professor Sahr said.
The Vice-Chancellor said his plan rhymes with the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE), particularly for students in diploma classes. He stated that based on the student’s Grade Point Average(GPA), they would either proceed to year two of the degree programs or start afresh. “There is no internal agreement or mediocrity in academia,” he said.
He disclosed that the Fourah Bay College Old Building at Cline Town would be there to serve a monumental purpose; despite being on the verge of rehabilitation by the American Embassy; noting that there would be an outfit in place to represent the University of Sierra Leone.