Aliu calls for support for Regional Maritime Academy

Accra, July 8, GNA - Vice President Aliu Mahama, on Thursday urged the World Maritime University (WMU) to favourably consider Ghana's request for the Regional Maritime Academy to be an offshore campus of the global training institution.

This would enable more West Africans to pursue postgraduate programmes in maritime studies and at a much lower cost.

Vice President Mahama, told the President of WMU, Professor Karl Laubstein, when he called on him at the Castle, Osu, that the linkage would also boost the efforts to make Ghana's ports more efficient to reduce the cost of doing business in line with the government's vision of a Golden age of Business.

He commended WMU for the training opportunities it had offered Ghana, saying, most of the top officials at the Regional Maritime Academy and the country's maritime industry had benefited.

Ghana ranks sixth in terms of the number of graduates of the WMU out of 140 countries and second to Nigeria in Africa.

Vice President Mahama said Ghana would continue to support the International Maritime Organisation, which owns the university. Prof. Laubstein described the relations between Ghana and WMU as fruitful and said "this can only grow better."

He gave the assurance that the necessary support would be given to grant Ghana's request.

Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways, explained in an interview that, the cost of 46,000 dollars required for a two-year masters programme and half the amount for a one-year programme could be reduced drastically to between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars if Ghana were to host an off-share campus of the University.

Shanghai Maritime University runs an offshore campus that Ghana seeks to emulate, he said.

"The WMU conducts policy research for the IMO and this would be of great benefit to Ghana," he added.

He said the Board of the Regional Maritime Academy, has been seeking innovative ways of upgrading the institution, which offers degree programmes, adding that, the Shanghai model would fit into their plans. During the one-week visit Prof. Laubstein would acquaint himself with the programmes of the Regional Maritime Academy and advise on how to improve them.