Winneba (C/R), April 6, GNA - Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), has urged the gender centre of the university to ensure significant female staff participation in all programmes of the tertiary institution. He said management was prepared to provide the necessary support for the centre to enable it to help raise the standards of female senior members of the university. Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw, who was speaking at the first gender mini-conference of the university in Winneba, said all staff of the educational institution would be given fair and equal opportunity to develop.

The event was organised by the university and sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York on the theme, 'supporting the professional growth of female senior members of the university". Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw explained that the conference sought to provide the participants with a platform to disseminate information on their research activities to the university community. He said the university had provided additional temporary offices at its central campus, to mainstream gender issues, and plans were far advanced to upgrade the centre into a directorate. Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw said support from Carnegie Corporation for innovative programmes of the UEW was underway and the tertiary institution would make sure that significant proportion of grants was allocated for activities requiring funding. He said Carnegie Corporation assisted the university to initiate a mentoring scheme for its female senior members in 2007 to help them to sharpen their research skills.

Prof. Asabere-Ameyaw said over 47 female senior members had performed their duties creditably since the inception of the programme. Mr. C. Akwaa Mensah, registrar of the university, expressed hope that the event would afford participants the opportunity to improve upon their academic work.