PROFILE OF THE REGISTRAR
Ms. Yaa Amankwaa Opuni was appointed as the third Registrar of UHAS, effective August 2022. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Administrators and Management Consultants, Ghana and a member of Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA).
Education
Ms. Opuni initially trained as a teacher, having obtained a Teacher’s Cert “A” Post-Secondary from Holy Child Training College, Sekondi. She taught for some time before going on to do undergraduate and postgraduate work in administration and management related programmes, enabling her to obtain a Bachelor of Education degree in Business Education (Secretarial and Management option) from the University of Education Winneba, Kumasi Campus (now Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), and a Master of Public Administration degree from University of Ghana Business School (UGBS). Her recent ChPA from the Chartered Institute of Management Consultants, Ghana (CIAMC) confirms her commitment to life-long education for higher professional efficiency.
Professional Background
She is among the core foundation staff of UHAS who assisted management to put systems and structures in place for a smooth take-off and running of the University when it was established in 2012. From planning of new academic programmes and taking them through accreditation; recruitment of faculty, administrative and junior staff; admission of students and orientation; to arrangements for examinations and accommodation, combined with planning, designing and presiding over the building of physical infrastructure from ground zero.
Appointed as an Assistant Registrar in 2012, Ms. Opuni has held various schedules in UHAS, including assignment to the Office of the Registrar from 2012 to 2017. Following her promotion to Senior Assistant Registrar in 2017, she was transferred to the Human Resource Directorate to head the Recruitment, Promotion and Separation Unit. From 2019 to 2021 Ms. Opuni was transferred to the Fred Binka School of Public Health in Hohoe, a satellite campus of UHAS, as the School Officer, where she was the sole administrator responsible for Academic and Student Affairs, Human Resource Management, and General Administration. She worked with the School’s management to restructure the administrative set-up and deepen the academic processes in the School. From Binka School until her appointment as Registrar, Ms. Opuni served as the School Officer of the School Pharmacy.
Her close knowledge and personal experience of the full range of the University’s administrative units and processes mandated under the Act and Statutes have been brought to bear on the University’s governance and administration. She has had the rare advantage of having been involved in all aspects of the University Machinery.
While handling her schedules, Ms. Opuni served and continues to serve as either member/secretary/recorder on a number of boards, committees (both standing and ad hoc) of the University Council and the Academic Board. Notable among these are: Recorder to the University Council from 2012 to 2017; Convocation non-professorial representative on Council from 2017 to 2020 and re-elected in August 2021; Secretary to the Audit Committee 2012 to July 2022; Recorder for the Appointments and Promotions Board of the University from 2012 to 2017, among others.
Ms. Opuni has served as a facilitator/resource person/and participant in many conferences, workshops and seminars in and outside UHAS. She has contributed widely to policy instruments developed in the University to guide its internal processes. In 2018, Ms. Opuni was the Rapporteur at the Higher Education Conference in Ghana organized by Vice Chancellors Ghana. She is also a member of the Media Commission Advisory Committee of the Peace Council in the Volta Region.
Passionate about student welfare and particularly the girl child, Ms. Opuni worked with CAMFED Ghana to provide Scholarships and bursaries to needy but brilliant students. Since 2012, CAMFED Ghana has supported a number of ladies in the University with payment of fees, accommodation, laptop and monthly allowance.
Before joining the University Ms. Opuni worked in various capacities at the Human Resource Unit of the University of Ghana, College of Health Sciences, Central Administration, where she served on several committees and provided appropriate support to guide the administrative functions and processes in the Central Administration of that College.