KNUST appoints first-ever female Vice-Chancellor

The Governing Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has elected Professor Rita Dickson as the new Vice-Chancellor.

She becomes the first-ever female to lead the science and technology university after beating three others to it.

She takes over from Prof Kwasi Obiri Danso, who will soon bring his four-year term in office to an end.

Prof Obiri Danso would have served another two years had he put in a re-election bid.

It was during his tenure that the school saw a major facelift, as several projects, which had stalled, were completed.

During his tenure, Prof Obiri Danso also took a major decision to convert single-sex halls into mixed halls, which, eventually, led to one of the biggest student riots on campus which made him unpopular among the students.

Sources within the university have attributed his decision not to seek re-election to the aftermath of the 2017 riots.

Again, under his leadership, the school was adjudged the best university in Ghana and West Africa, 14th best on the African continent and 706th best university globally by the US News & World Report.



About Prof Rita Dickson

Prof. Mrs. Rita Akosua Dickson is an alumna of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Pharmacy in 1994.

She pursued graduate studies leading to the award of MPharm. in Pharmacognosy in 1999 and was appointed a lecturer the following year in the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KNUST.

In 2003, she was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue a PhD at Kings’ College London, University of London, UK.

She returned to teaching at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2007 and was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2009 and further to an Associate Professor in 2014.

Professor Dickson has been the Head of Department of Pharmacognosy for three terms from 2009 to 2013.

Before her appointment as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, she was the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and also acted as Provost of the College of Health Sciences in the absence of the Provost.