Faculty of Economic Sciences Welcomes New Partner Universities from Ghana
HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences took an active part in International Partners’ Week, just finished at HSE. The week was attended by representatives of 23 countries, including the new partners of the Faculty of Economic Sciences - the University of Cape Coast and the University of Ghana. One of the purposes of the visit of representatives of Ghanaian universities was to sign the MOU’s with HSE University. Agreements will enable academic and cultural cooperation between universities, as well as establish academic exchanges.
Dr. James Atta Peprah, the Dean of the School of Economics and Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Applied Economics represented the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. University Of Ghana was represented by Associate Professor and Academic Quality Assurance Unit Director Dr. Daniel Kwabena Twerefou, who holds Bsc and Msc in mathematics from the Russian Friendship University and Ph.D in Economics from the Moscow State University of Instrument Engineering and Computer Science.
The Faculty of Economic Sciences invited Dean Peprah and Professor Twerefou to discuss research cooperation and academic exchange opportunities with Dean Pekarski, Professor Aleskerov, Dr. Jabir, Professor Kolosnitsyna.
Professor Aleskerov introduced current research areas of interest at the International Centre of Decision Choice and Analysis, which cover choice and decisions of humans, firms and countries, and expand to modeling and forecasting of various events, including natural disasters, like water and air pollution, earthquakes, tornados, wildfires and other calamities.
Professor Twerefou noted that while his research and teaching are in environmental economics and environment events forecasts are relevant for Ghana, the University of Ghana is one of the major universities in the country, enrolling more than 70 thousand students, and as a leading research university employs scholars in various fields. University of Ghana has many international partners, while HSE is the first Russian partner of UG.
Currently there are twenty six Ghanaians enrolled mostly in masters programs at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, while undergraduate students from Ghana are members of International Economic Olympiad Ghana national team - starting from 2022, Faculty of Economic Sciences offers admission, full scholarship and additional monthly stipend to the IEO national team members.
Professor Kolosnitsyna noted the high motivation of graduate students from Ghana: “Their academic background, diverse educational trajectories and motivation to succeed at school are impressive. Most of them, when asked about their future plans, answer that they want to come back to Ghana and work towards reducing poverty.”
Professor Kolosnitsyna and her colleagues conduct research in the popular field of health economics: healthcare, healthy lifestyle and unhealthy choices, as well as social policy.
Dean Peprah noted that UCC employs health economists as well, and suggested involving all university research facilities into the cooperation, since all three universities have comprehensive research facilities and teams to cooperate and enrich each other's research agenda and competencies not limited to economics, statistics and finance.
Professor Jabir introduced Department of Statistics and Data Analysis, as well as International Laboratory of Stochastic Analysis and Its Applications, where he works as a senior research fellow,and their Master’s program ”Stochastic modeling in economics and finance”, with graduates include Richard Asiamah, the first Ghanaian PhD student. .
Dean Pekarski summed up that the Faculty of Economic Sciences comprises various research groups, students projects alone number up to 170 research groups led by faculty, offering research projects to undergrad, masters and PhD students. It will be the task of the international office to connect the scholars, while the HSE website provides research interests, publications, and many other details both for individuals and research teams.
At the end of the International Partners’ Week, Dean Peprah and Professor Twerefou met Ghanaian students and discussed their experience at the HSE University, shared fond memories and their impressions from the current visit to HSE University.
In the course of events of the International Partners’ Week, the Faculty of Economic Sciences participated in the Networking Session and Faculty Visit.