The leadership of KNUST College of Health Sciences (CHS) and Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (FPPS) has held a meeting with a delegation from South Dakota State University to discuss a proposed collaboration on the 12th of May 2023 at the CHS Boardroom.

The Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Christian Agyare highlighted the purpose of the meeting and further informed the meeting that there was already an existing collaboration between the two parties however, this meeting was to discuss specific areas of collaboration.

The collaboration would be in the areas of Research, Mentoring, and Teaching. The exchange would involve staff as well as students from both Universities.

Discussing the nature of the collaboration, a specific addendum would be developed in addition to the general MoU that exists already. The International Programmes Office would be engaged to facilitate additional processes required to establish the collaboration. All departmental heads at the Faculty of Pharmacy would also be informed to affirm their interest in the current collaboration.

The collaboration would start with students in their 5th and 6th years which is the clinical years at the Faculty of Pharmacy. The exchange would be experimental with bedside experience.

There would therefore be the need to acquire an intern license in the U.S. to enable the students to have the needed practical experience.

The exchange would also be for a period of six weeks. The selection of students would depend on the student’s ability to fund the trip. Funding would include flight, accommodation and food. Assess to grants for funding could also be sought as the programme progresses.

Sharna O’Connor, Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy Practice, from South Dakota State University stated that the value of the collaboration will reveal the differences in how health care is practiced, culture, health care infrastructure, and the different ways patients flow through the health system and access care.

The period of the exchange should be scheduled to fall within the long vacation holidays in Ghana (May, June, and July).