During a visit to the University of Ghana, a delegation from Cornell University hosted joint leadership and academic panels centred around the theme “Cornell, Ghana, and the world”. As part of their itinerary, the Cornell Team expressed their interest in visiting the School of Veterinary Medicine. This meeting was held at the Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH) on February 22, 2024. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss possible collaboration areas that could be explored by both schools.

Dr Richard Hope Otsyina, The Acting Dean for the School of Veterinary Medicine gave a brief introduction of the school and its vision and mission. He mentioned that the school was the youngest within the university, having been established in 2009. Despite the fact, the school has graduated about 100 students since it was founded, and he emphasised that the school had the potential to expand through collaborative efforts.

Advancing in the discussion, The Acting Dean mentioned some thematic areas for collaboration which included topics like “Emerging and zoonotic viral diseases”, “Neglected tropical diseases”, “Bee health and Bee farming” amongst others. In relation to focused postgraduate training of students, he talked about supervision and mentorship, collaboration in research and sharing of research material and data. The delegation from Cornell University expressed their willingness in terms of student exchange programmes as a starting point for collaboration.

The Senior Assistant Registrar from the International Programme Office (IPO) informed the team that her office was ready to initiate an MOU between the University of Ghana, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Cornell University. This collaboration aims to strengthen SVM’s capacity while leading to a benefitting partnership of cross-cultural understanding and knowledge exchange between both schools. Dr. Otsyina appealed to the veterinarians in the delegation to consider impacting their knowledge to the students during their sabbatical leave periods and apply to the school as visiting scholars.

The delegation included a Veterinarian Couple, Prof. Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost of International Affairs at Cornell University, Professor Paula Cohen, a Genetics Professor and Associate Vice Provost for Life Sciences at Cornell University, amongst others whereas the team from the School of Veterinary Medicine included The Acting Dean, Dr Richard Dery Suu Ire and Dr Sherry Johnson, both senior lecturers at the school, and the Assistant Registrar of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Mrs Susana Otu Amoah Ofori. The Senior Assistant Registrar of the IPO, Mrs Barbara Blankson was also in attendance.

While presenting souvenirs to the team from Cornell University, The Acting Dean urged them to always keep the school in mind and encouraged them to offer their support in diverse ways. This was followed by a tour of the school’s Small Animal Teaching Hospital. The delegation was impressed with the facilities at the hospital and the services offered to the students, the university community, and the nation at large.