The Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance (DAPQA) shall be responsible for total quality assurance and enhancement at SDD-UBIDS. Total quality assurance means a methodological approach to ensure that the University Management becomes a good implementer of external and internal quality assurance. This approach is established on the principles of assessment, compliance and accreditation. To achieve the aims of the University, there is a need for academic planning, quality assurance and quality improvement in teaching and learning, research and community engagement as well as curriculum development, students’ progression, academic support services and staff welfare. Hence, the obligation to establish a robust quality assurance and enhancement system guided by a policy.
The values of DAPQA include respect – openness and fair play, excellence – fineness, fit for purpose and value for money, answerability – responsible and accountability as well as integrity – honesty and truthfulness. These values support the core values of SDD-UBIDS as excellence, innovation, integrity, collaboration, sustainability, professionalism, transparency, accountability and inclusiveness.
For achievement of the goals and objectives of the quality assurance policy of SDD-UBIDS, all relevant sections throughout the University shall constitute Implementation Units (IUs) with clearly defined functions/roles regarding the assurance of quality in the core business of their respective mandates. The structure of the DAPQA Secretariat includes the offices of the Director, five departmentalised unit heads, the head of administration and two administrative support staff. The DAPQA Secretariat’s administrative head is a Deputy Registrar who is directly responsible to the Director. The Head is supported by two administrative staff: one is in charge of administration and the other handles monitoring and evaluation. The three administrators provide daily office management and administrative needs of the five departmental units and the office of the Director.
The vision of DAPQA of SDD-UBIDS is to be efficient and effective total quality compliant in all aspects of higher education institution delivery. This goes to support the University to be an internationally acclaimed centre of excellence in higher education. The Directorate sets its’ mission to implement total quality management in teaching, learning, research, community outreach and student-centred administration. This agrees with the mission of SDD-UBIDS to provide quality teaching, learning, development-oriented problem-solving research and innovative practical training to qualified and capable persons and institutions through the deployment of ICT, and, a constant review of our programmes, curriculum and teaching methodology.
DAPQA is mandated by ACT 1001 (2019) which is the Law that established and mandated SDD-UBIDS as a public university; SDD-UBIDS STATUTES 2021; SDD-UBIDS STRATEGIC PLAN 2021; Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) guidelines; and, the African Union – African Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ASG-QA), AAU 2017
Kenneth Peprah is the foundation Director of the Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance, SDD-UBIDS with effect from May 2021. His progression in the academic ranks started as a lecturer in May 2004, a senior lecturer in January 2015, an Associate Professor in July 2019 and a Professor of Agricultural Geography and Environmental Studies in September 2022.
In terms of administrative and organisational experience, he started as an administrative and research officer of the United Nations University Project (UNU/PLEC – Ghana) at the University of Ghana, Legon for the period 2002 to 2004 under the mentorship of the late Professor Edwin Akonno Gyasi. He was a post-graduate programmes coordinator for the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies (FIDS) for two months (January and February 2016). He became the Head of Department for six years in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies, FIDS, University for Development Studies, Wa Campus from March 2016 to April 2021. Prof. Peprah’s academic journey started at Wamfie for the day nursery, primary and elementary schools.
He continued at St James Minor Seminary, Abesim-Sunyani for his O’Level with a distinction in 1991. He proceeded to Aggrey Memorial Zion Secondary School, Cape Coast for his A’Level and then did a one-year mandatory national service at Dormaa Akwamu Health Centre. He studied at the University of Ghana, Legon where he graduated with a second class upper division in Geography and Resource Development with Sociology in 1998. He did his second mandatory national service at the Catholic Technical Institute, Sunyani.
He had an MPhil and a PhD in Geography and Resource Development in 2002 and 2013 respectively from the University of Ghana, Legon. He won a PhD Commonwealth Scholarship Award (split-site) for the period September 2008 to September 2009 at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. In 2015, he was the Lead Consultant in an IUCN project, “A Development of Management Plan for Riparian Forests in the District of Nandom located along the Volta River”. In 2018, he was again a Lead Consultant in a UNICEF project, “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Upper West Region”; in 2019 to date, another Lead Consultant in an ERASMUS-plus project with Polacky University, Czech Republic; and, in 2021 to date, a Lead Consultant in two different projects: Academic Without Borders with University of Calgary, Canada as a partner and a GIZ Project on “Development of District Infrastructure Database and Participatory GIS”.
Prof. Peprah has authored two (2) books, ten (10) book chapters and thirty-two (32) peer-reviewed journal articles. He has been lecturing levels 100, 300, 400, master and PhD classes in various courses ranging from ecosystem thinking, statistical maps and diagrams, agro-climatology, development of arid lands, and philosophy of the social sciences to ecosystem approach. He is married with four children.
Mr Harrison Okoto is an Assistant Registrar at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS). He was first appointed as a Junior Assistant Registrar on December 1, 2020 and Sectional Head of the Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance (DAPQA) of SDD-UBIDS on April 1, 2023. Mr Okoto holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Development Studies and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Integrated Development Studies from the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. He is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Administrators and Management Consultants (CIAMC). He has a research interest in Organizational and Institutional Quality Assurance.