UEW Strengthens Partnership with GAF to Broaden Academic Opportunities
The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), on Wednesday, 27th August 2025, hosted a four-member delegation from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to explore new areas of collaboration and to strengthen existing academic partnerships.
The visit, which brought together senior officers of the GAF and UEW management, underscored the mutual commitment of the two institutions to advance education, professional development and national service.
Prof. Stephen Jobson Mitchual, Vice-Chancellor of UEW, described the visit as “a gesture of goodwill and vision” and reaffirmed the University’s openness to deepening ties with the Armed Forces. He explained that UEW’s mandate as a teacher education institution makes partnerships central to its mission.
“One of our key values is partnership. We appreciate this partnership and would be glad to move it to another level that benefits both the University and the country. All that we are doing is service to Ghana, service to Africa, and service to the entire world,” Prof. Mitchual said.
The Vice-Chancellor highlighted areas such as conflict and peace studies, short courses and faculty exchanges as avenues where UEW and the Armed Forces could collaborate. He further invited the GAF to leverage the University’s wide expertise in the sciences, humanities and professional disciplines.
He assured the delegation that UEW’s newly launched Strategic Plan provides a framework for innovative partnerships including resource mobilisation and the development of new academic programmes.
Speaking on behalf of the GAF delegation, Col. Livingstone Penti, Chief Garrison Education Officer at the Military Academy and Training Schools (MATS) in Teshie-Accra, explained that the visit formed part of the broader goal of the Ghana Armed Forces Education Corps to improve professional education within the military.
He stressed that while the corps oversees education at multiple levels—basic, secondary and tertiary—the relationship with UEW is particularly crucial to their mission of advancing higher education opportunities for soldiers. “There is a lot of competition in education within the Ghana Armed Forces, as many colleges are now partnering with universities across the country. What makes the partnership with UEW unique is that it provides a purely academic environment without being tied to compulsory military programmes.
“Our aim is to make education more attractive to soldiers and UEW has already distinguished itself in this regard. However, to remain competitive, we must continually improve the facilities and packages available,” Col. Penti observed.
Lt. Col. Hilda Asiedu, Commanding Officer at the School of Education of the MATS, traced the origins of the collaboration to three years ago when her unit began partnering with UEW’s College for Distance and e-Learning (CODeL).
She noted that the partnership, which started with about 190 students, has now expanded to nearly 1,000 with successful cohorts already graduating from executive and postgraduate programmes.
“We chose UEW because of its strong reputation in teacher education and the support we have received has been outstanding. Our dream is to expand further by establishing a dedicated off-campus facility within the military enclave tailored specifically for the security services. This would not only make education more accessible but also create a more controlled environment for our personnel to study,” she said.
Lt. Col. Hilda Asiedu further appealed for infrastructure development to sustain the growing demand, noting that the military was willing to provide land for UEW to build facilities under a shared ownership arrangement. “We are looking at a win-win partnership that enhances education for the Ghana Armed Forces and by extension, strengthens national security through knowledge and professional growth,” she added.
Prof. Richard Oduro, Dean of the School of Business at UEW, reiterated the University’s commitment to the partnership, recalling earlier engagements with the military training schools in Teshie. He admitted that challenges had occasionally slowed the smooth running of some programmes but stressed that the University was already working on repackaging and streamlining its models for sustainability.
“We are not unaware of the challenges, but we are committed to finding solutions that will make the partnership stronger. Through our collaboration with CODeL and other faculties, we intend to design programmes that are both beneficial to the military and aligned with UEW’s strategic priorities,” Prof. Oduro emphasised.
The meeting concluded with both parties expressing optimism about the future of the partnership. The management of UEW pledged to explore the proposals put forward by the Armed Forces while the GAF delegation promised to continue championing collaboration at the policy level.
The courtesy call reinforced UEW’s philosophy of building strong, relevant partnerships that support its role as Ghana’s leading teacher education university. With the Ghana Armed Forces equally committed to advancing the educational and professional capacities of its personnel, the collaboration stands as a model of how academia and security institutions can work together in the service of national development.
