By James Tamba Lebbie
The University of Sierra Leone has concluded a two-day retreat on the theme: Re-Engineering Strategies for the Provision of Tertiary Education in Sierra Leone at the Njala University Conference Centre, Njala University, Njala.
Delivering the opening remarks, Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone, Prof. Jonas A.S. Redwood-Sawyerr said the emerging landscape in the education industry as well as the need for total quality management of the University’s resources, compliance with the new process of Performance Management Contract as defined by government, establishing a direction and road map for the operations of the University in a Strategic Plan for a five year period (2013–2017) are among the factors that engendered the Retreat.
He said “the process of formulating such a document would create an opportunity for the University to take a retrospective, introspective and prospective view of the University’s operations with the object of generating relevant data that will guide the implementation of the Strategic Plan. He said the activities identified could be transformed into a project proposal for funding.”
In his keynote statement, Pro Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Rev. Cannon J.E. Modupe Taylor-Pearce described the Retreat as historical. He said taking the cue from the theme of the Retreat, the University should narrow its goals down to “three main visionary points,” which are: developing a passion for excellence that is second to none; a determined attempt to rebrand the University of Sierra Leone; and the adoption of policies that would move the University’s ranking up from its current unacceptable position within the shortest possible time.
Registrar of the University of Sierra Leone, Edward Tamba Ngandi in his welcome address drew an analogy between the University of Sierra Leone and the military. He said the military would retreat to avoid defeat and then reorganized to regain lost grounds, pointing out that that was exactly what the University was doing.
Deliberations in the Retreat focused on four main pillars with the object of putting together a comprehensive Strategic Plan for the University for a five-year period 2013 – 2017. These four thematic areas served as an agenda in order to facilitate serious and robust discussions that would inform the formulation of the Strategic Plan.
The four pillars are: Information and Communications Technology (ICT); Academic Quality Assurance; Finances; and University Administration and Operational Platform.
The Retreat attracted the University’s administrative top hierarchy as well as key academic and other professional staff. It engendered greater participation and discussions not just from those designated to present papers but also from other members of faculty whose ideas and input were valuable and contributed to making the exercise a success.
The Retreat generated sufficient materials to facilitate the production of the Retreat proceedings and the draft University of Sierra Leone Strategic Plan for 2013 – 2017, which formed the main product of the entire exercise.
As a follow-up on the Retreat exercise, the Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sierra Leone, Prof. Jonas A.S. Redwood-Sawyerr has formed three committees. The first is an Editorial Board charged with the responsibility of producing the Retreat proceedings. Another is a 12-man Strategic Plan Formulation Committee and the third is Strategic Plan Validation Committee.
This is the first of such Retreat to be held by the University of Sierra Leone in its recent history.
