New Vice Chancellor for UDS

Professor John B.K. Kaburise, 53, and a Professor of Public Law, was on Monday inducted into office as the new Vice-Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale.

He succeeds Professor Raymond Bening, the first Vice-Chancellor who has retired. In his acceptance speech, the Vice-Chancellor said problems facing the university need teamwork to solve.

"We therefore, need to put in building blocks to enable the university to achieve its mission by producing the type of students that society needs from us." He charged the university authorities to create sufficient goodwill to encourage people to work at the university, saying, "out of nothing let us always be the best."

Prof Kaburise assured the university of hardwork and open administration, saying, "what matters is not the number of time I fall down but how often I rise when I fall and having you standing there to support me."

Dr Hakeen Wemah, Chairman of the University Council, said the university was facing pioneering problems and expressed the hope that Professor Kaburise would used his rich experience to improve life in the institution.

He urged the Vice-Chancellor to be steadfast in the handling of issues at the university and not to listen to people who would want to criticise him for being aggressive; saying, "those who criticise you will turn out to say you are too soft for their liking."

Prof. Kaburise graduated from the University of Ghana in 1972, obtaining an honours degree in law. In 1973, he obtained his LLM degree from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and also studied at Oxford University.

He was, for eight months in 1997, acting Vice-Chancellor of University of Durban-Westville, South Africa, after serving first as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Research) and Deputy Fice-Chancellor (Finance and Administration).

In his 26 years academic career, Prof Kaburise taught law and held visiting professorial appointments at the universities of Lesotho, UNISA and Venda, Papua New Guinea, Victoria and Waikato, both in New Zealand as well as Boston, Pennsylvania in the U.S, and Cambridge (U.K).

Prof Kaburise has published books on Labour/Industrial Law, the Law of Evidence, Constitutional Law, Legal Education and the Management of Higher Education.

The new Vice-Chancellor has been a Fulbright, visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1981), a Smuts visiting Fellow in Commonwealth Studies (University of Cambridge (1987-1988), and a United Nations International Law Fellow (Geneva, 1985). Prof Kaburise is also life-member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.