Mrs. Mildred Asmah, a Consultant Administrator, has advised administrators to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to have some free time to focus on the creative human aspects of their roles.
She said AI had emerged as a transformative technology, impacting various sectors, including higher education and the economics of Information Technology.
Mrs Asmah gave the advice at the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) National Congress 2024 in Accra.
The congress is for the GAUA fraternity to interact with guests and speakers to equip them for a sustainable environment amid fast growth in the tertiary education landscape.
The theme for this year’s congress is: ‘Balancing Growth and Sustainability in Expanding Public Universities – the Role of GAUA’.
Mrs Asmah said the rapid advancements in AI, particularly in machine learning and natural language processing had enabled the development of intelligent systems that could perform tasks previously requiring human intelligence.
She said AI’s integration in higher education had gained significant attention in recent years with universities exploring various application, such as adaptive learning systems, chatbots for student support and AI powered tools.
The Consultant Administrator said it had the potential to revolutionise higher education, personalise learning experiences, automate administrative tasks, and support research activities.
‘AI is not going to replace us administrators but make our lives easier,’ Mrs Asmah stated.
Mr Michael Owusu Ansah, incoming National President, GAUA, said growth in universities could be measured in counts of universities, staff and student numbers, revenue streams and physical and administrative structures.
He said it could also be measured in academic programmes, expanding research initiatives, enhancement of human resource, policies, and conditions of service for staff among others.
Mr Ansah said growth could have negative effects on workforce, student needs, financing strategies, stifle innovation, cause unhealthy competitions and affect the execution of the vision of expanding public universities.
He said it was important to balance the growth and sustainability of universities to desist from creating institutions that could not outlive their founding fathers.
Dr Mrs Beth Offei-Awuku, outgoing National President, GAUA, said the fight for stakeholder’s recognition of GAUA in the senior member category of the public universities was ongoing and needed strategic planning with stronger negotiations for the existing gaps to be bridged.
She said many unfair directives and discriminatory policies had been meted on the Association by the regulators and government agencies for which GAUA needed to resist vehemently.
Dr Mrs Offei-Awuku said a strike declared on 29th of November 2023 led to the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) witnessed by the Minister for Education.
‘GAUA is yet to see the full implementation of this agreement and should not rest on its oars,’ she stated.
The Ghana Association of University Administrators is made up of non-teaching, administrative and professional staff of the universities responsible for day-to-day administration.
Source: Ghana News Agency