Winneba (C/R), April 03, GNA- The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Prof. Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw has charged the gender centre of the university to step up its activities to ensure a significant female staff presence in all programmes of the university. He said management is ready to lend the required support to the centre in helping to raise the standard of female senior members in the university. Prof Asabere-Ameyaw was speaking at the first mini-conference of the university in Winneba. It 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 in the university". The Vice-Chancellor said plans are far advanced for the University to upgrade the gender centre into a directorate and has provided additional temporary offices at the central campus of the university to mainstream gender issues. He said support from Carnegie Corporation for innovative programmes

of the university was underway and management would make sure that significant proportion of the grant would be allocated for grant activities.

Prof Asabere-Ameyaw said his administration would ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all staff of the university. He said with support from the Carnegie Corporation, the University initiated a mentoring scheme for female senior members in 2007 to assist them to sharpen their research skills.

The Vice-Chancellor said over 47 female senior members have performed their assigned duties creditably since the programme started. He said one of the reasons of the conference was to provide the mentors and mentees the platform to disseminate information on their research activities to the University community. The registrar of the university, Mr C. Akwaa Mensah who chaired the function, hoped that the conference will afford participants the opportunity to improve their academic work. 04 April 09