Professor John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor was on Friday sworn-in for a four-year tenure as the third Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
He takes over from Prof Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, who has completed his two four-year tenures of Office.
The swearing-in was done on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana by Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, a Deputy Minister of Education.
After the swearing-in, Rev Fordjour together with Dr Kofi Ohene-Konadu, Chairperson, UPSA Governing Board and Prof Amartey, robbed Prof Mawutor in his official academic gown.
Prof Mawutor, who previously served as the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the UPSA, is a Professor of Finance and a Chartered Accountant, with membership in the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
He is an experienced professional and academic and comes to this role with more than 20 years of experience in academia and industry.
Prof Mawutor has held various positions at UPSA, serving in increasingly responsible roles culminating at executive level roles.
He has served as Programme Coordinator of various academic programmes, Vice-Dean and in 2016, he was appointed as Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, a position he held until 2022.
As Dean, he is credited with the exponential growth of UPSA’s graduate programmes both in student population and programme offerings.
Prof Mawutor began his career in the higher education sector as a lecturer at UPSA in 2008.
Since then, he has risen through the ranks, serving as programme coordinator of several graduate school programmes.
He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2014 and became Associate Professor in 2021.
He has also served as Vice-Dean of the School of Graduate School.
He has served on several national committees and boards, such as the Coastal Development Authority and the Abokobi Area Rural Bank, where he served as Vice-Chairman and on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
Prof Mawutor is an Elder of The Church of Pentecost, Kokomlemle District, and he is married to Deaconess Dr Thelma Frimpong-Mensah, a professional with Deloitte Ghana, and to together, they have four children: Eyram, Lom, Kafui and Mawuena.
In his inaugural address, Prof Mawutor expressed gratitude to the Almighty God for how far he had brought him.
He noted that he was extremely honored to have been part of the great University (UPSA), whose legacy of scholarship with professionalism, excellence, innovation, and community impact resonates far beyond its walls.
He lauded the role of his predecessors, namely Prof Amartey and Prof Joshua Alabi, the First VC of the UPSA, for their pioneering roles in building the University.
“In my humble journey for the past 22 years as a student and a faculty member, I have been inspired by the groundbreaking transformative leadership of my predecessors whose sacrifice, commitment, resilience to unchanging obstacles has brought us this far,” Prof Mawutor said.
“….I see my role as a steward of your collective aspirations. My leadership will be grounded on God Almighty and I stand here to pledge that there will be no middle grounds.”
Prof Mawutor pledged to pursue five thematic aspirations for the advancement of the UPSA; such as leveraging on information technology (IT).
He said over the past few years, the management of UPSA had taken significant steps towards the transformation of traditional teaching and learning systems to digitalize its core academic and administrative systems, thus making it a user-friendly digital system to leverage on those achievements.
He said his strategic focus on IT was to enable students to learn in a conducive environment and upgrade the UPSA Learning Management System.
Prof Mawutor further pledged to build strategic partnerships, making the UPSA a one-stop shop for professional programmes and also to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy and to promote professional programmes and attract prospective students.
The VC pledged to pursue the promotion of interdisciplinary research and to promote research through the establishment of faculty journals.
Prof Mawutor said as a university, the promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation among students before graduation was crucial for fostering economic growth.
He said to address this, UPSA had already established a Center for Entrepreneurial Development for Students; saying “given this opportunity to serve this University in my capacity as the Vice-Chancellor, I will enhance the existing Centre by introducing some innovative measures”.
The VC further pledged to uphold, protect, and enhance the culture and brand of UPSA.
Dr Kofi Ohene-Konadu, Chairperson, UPSA Governing Council, urged all stakeholders to rally behind Prof Mawutor to achieve his goals for the University.
The programme was graced by Apostle Eric Nyamekye, the Chairperson of The Church of Pentecost.
Source: GNA
