Detectives of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) are to benefit from a new programme of study in forensic investigation at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), starting from the first quarter of 2021.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the university and the Police administration to train personnel of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Forensic Investigation.

The course is among various programmes including; certificate and diploma programmes to be run by the University.

Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, Vice-Chancellor of UCC said this during the second session of the 53rd congregation of the university.

A total of 2,493 students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences and the College of Humanities and Legal Studies in the 2019/2020 academic year graduated.

Earlier, the first session of the congregation saw a total of 3, 298 students who completed their programme of study from the college of Education Studies and the Colleges of Education affiliated to the Institute of Education, graduated.

Prof Boampong mentioned that plans were far advanced to affiliate other Police training Institutions including; the Police Staff and Command College, Police Academy and Police Basic Training to the university.

He urged the Standing Committee tasked to work towards the affiliation of the institutions and their respective curricula to work with speed to ensure successful completion of the affiliation process.

He assured the Police administration that UCC would work to uphold the confidence response in the institution to provide quality mentoring for its training institutions, noting that UCC had created a niche in mentoring other tertiary institutions across the country.

During the year under review, the Vice-Chancellor said the School of Agriculture in collaboration with the Exim bank and Agri-Impact Consult was able to put up 10 greenhouses for the production of vegetables.

Prof Boampong expressed gratitude to the efforts of the staff of the university in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while congratulating them for their efforts on the successful completion of their courses.

He called on the graduands to be proud of how far they had come and admonished them to pass on the quality education received at UCC to others and let it reflect in their daily endeavours.

“It is worth noting, that education is the catalyst that propelled most, if not all, developed nations to their current status. You have received quality education, and you are expected to pass on same, or even higher level of quality education, to whoever you encounter”, he advised.

“Although you are all graduating with different classes, you should be proud of yourselves ad it is coming at a time when the World is confronted with a pandemic and when education has become a topical issue in our national discourse”, he added.