UCC launches Samuel and Emelia Brew-Butler Research Fund
A research fund to assist graduate students of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), to come out with scholarly research to enhance the development of the society has been launched in Accra.
The Samuel and Emelia Brew-Butler GRASAG Research Fund would provide a support system to help ease the financial burden of graduate researchers.
It was born out of the need for quality research and the necessity for a paradigm shift in policy direction and development.
Launching the fund in Accra, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman, Minister of Education, underscored the importance of quality research to the development of the country.
She said through research, universities could create a body of knowledge that would help end crime, reduce poverty, improve human rights and correct the many other ills of society.
Prof Agyeman said the fund would give the graduate students the needed “wings to fly” as they have a resource to tap into to advance their research and create knowledge.
Nana Brew-Butler Chairman of the University’s Council, said research is the cornerstone for social, technological, industrial and other forms of development and called for a paradigm shift in the approach and attitude to research work and findings.
“The shift should lead us to invest, as a nation, corporate or private entities in the training of the researchers and in research work,” he said, adding that research is the root of sustained development at the personal, institutional, national and global levels.
He said there is the need to empower innovative and creative individuals who could also contribute to the economic development of Ghana.
More often than not, the lack of funds either stalls research or forces the student researchers to choose easier topics that are of little relevance to society.
The University of Cape Coast branch of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana- UCC-GRASAG took the initiative and set up a fund to alleviate the plight of its members.
The executives named the fund after Nana Brew-Butler, for his immense contributions to the university.
Nana Brew-Butler said he had thought of setting up a similar fund in honour of his late wife, Mrs Emelia Brew-Butler, who died on July 4, 2013.
He proposed that the fund be rather named after him and his late wife as she was more into research and was a product of the university hence, the Samuel and Emelia Brew-Butler GRASAG-UCC Research Fund.
He thanked the University for the honour in appreciation of his contribution to UCC and most importantly as a mark of honour to his late wife, Emelia.
He said the Number One Account of “SAMUEL AND EMELIA BREW-BUTLER GRASAG-UCC RESEARCH FUND”, which was launched in Cape Coast a few months ago, has yielded GH₵150,000.
“I have already directed the university to pay all sitting allowances due me as the Pro- Chancellor and Chairman of Council into this account,” Nana Brew-Butler said.
He said a supplementary fund to inspire innovative graduate students of the UCC to conduct research into Health and Environment has also yielded $40,000 and GH₵522, 000.
The fund could only be accessed by graduates of UCC whose research work have elements of innovation and invention.
Source: GNA