Wa, (UWR), Jan. 16, UBIDS – The Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) has organized an academic visibility seminar with a call on Academics and Postgraduate students to take steps to enhance their visibility and that of the University on the electronic space.
Explaining what academic visibility means, Prof. Fredrick Dayour, an Associate Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the Director of DRIC, said it was the recognition given to and the accessibility of the work done or the activities of academics within their field/discipline.
In addition, it entails making research findings, publications, and contributions widely known and accessible to other scholars, professionals, students, and the public.
Speaking during the opening of a one-day seminar at Hall 3A on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, Prof. Dayour noted that enhancing academic visibility was an ongoing process that required consistent effort and engagement with the academic community, both online and offline.
The Director of DRIC noted that as an institution of higher learning, their major role was to conduct research and do community service as well as teaching.
He stressed that the university belonged to a global village and, therefore, it was competing with all other universities for ranking, academics, researchers, and postgraduate students. The University must, therefore, stay visible through activities such as carrying out research, attendance to conferences, seminars, webinars, and contributing to policy debates.
“As researchers, we must strive harder to reach out to our peers out there through research publications and other activities that will make us visible in the electronic space”, he emphasized.
Prof. Dayour noted that scholars stand to gain a lot if they maintain maximum visibility with their academic activities.
“The school needs to increase students’ intake, hence, there is the need to increase the University’s visibility and that visibility is contingent on the visibility of the individual academics as well as the postgraduate students”, he further emphasized.
He said academic visibility was very important to the Times Higher Education Ranking, noting that the essence of the seminar was, therefore, to take academics, researchers, and postgraduate students through how to become visible.
He said he was impressed with the attendance, both in person and online which was an indication that all categories of participants were interested in becoming more visible with their academic activities which is a positive sign, particularly with regards to the visibility of the University.
Prof. Dayuor announced that the next seminar would be on “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research” and hoped for an even better attendance and participation when the date is finally announced.
On mentorship, the Director of DRIC said it was very critical to scholarship because navigating the path of getting articles/research findings published was a daunting task for young academics, hence, the need for mentorship.
He, therefore, urged senior academics to find time out of their busy schedules to mentor the young ones for them to also come up, adding that an increased mentorship would contribute to an increased visibility of the University which may lead to an increase in student enrolment.
“Mentorship is such that when done well, you find the mentee doing things and thinking just like the mentor because young academics often tap a lot from the expertise of senior academics and it helps a lot of them to also rise to the top”, he emphasized.
He mentioned the issue of staffing as one major challenge confronting the Directorate but was hopeful that the University Management would soon address that challenge to ease the burden on him and further enhance the functionality of the Directorate.
On achievements so far, Prof. Dayour said they had been able to build a website full of information that staff could access, and also put in a formality on consultancy services and grant proposal writing.
He disclosed that a Research policy as well as a five-year research agenda were on the way and when ready it would be ratified by the University Council and subsequently launched to guide the University on its research activities.
“All postgraduate students will have to work to help us achieve that research agenda. This means that postgraduate students will be admitted to one of the research agenda areas and that is where their thesis and dissertations will emerge from and once that is done, they will be helping to push the research agenda”, he said.
“I see a very promising future with the strong support of academic staff. With all the structures being put in place, I would like to see very huge amounts of grants being brought into the coffers of the University and if that happens, we will be able to address many of our challenges as a deprived University”, he concluded.
Mr. Nicholas Tanye, the Ag. Head of Software and Systems, took the participants through practical sessions on how to open a Google Scholar, Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), ResearchGate, and LinkedIn accounts.
Dr. John Bosco Baguri Sumani, Senior Lecturer, Department of Environment and Resource Studies and Senior Hall Tutor for Jubilee Hall, said the seminar was timely and useful as it reminded them as senior academics to realign their old Google accounts that were affiliated with the University for Development Studies (UDS) with UBIDS to give visibility to the institution.
He noted that being visible as an academic has a lot of advantages including giving one recognition, adding to one’s reputation, and valued as an academic as well as financial benefits by way of getting invitations as a guest lecturer, attending conferences and seminars which brings lots of satisfaction.
Ms. Winifred Esinam Agbolosoo, a Postgraduate Student at the Department of Communication Studies (DECS), described the seminar as insightful, saying it had informed her that if she wanted to venture into academia, then she needed to put certain structures in place to become visible.