The study explored perceptions of postgraduate distance education students of University of Cape Coast (UCC). Specifically, associations between UCC postgraduate distance students’ characteristics and satisfaction, as well as students’ perceptions of physical facilities, staff-students relationship, facilitator quality, and student support services were examined. Determinants of students’ satisfaction regarding physical facilities, staff-students relationship, facilitator quality, and student support services were also investigated. A census was used for the study, whereby a questionnaire was used to collect data from 125 students. It was revealed that satisfaction was not dependent on age, gender, or programme of study but was significantly related to study centre location and semester of study. The students were generally satisfied with physical facilities, staff-students relationship, and facilitator quality but were unimpressed with student support services. The three domains that students were impressed with were deemed to be determinants of their satisfaction. It was recommended that those aspects of the programme that received satisfactory responses should be maintained but improved on with time. Those aspects with unfavourable responses, on the other hand, were to be critically considered for immediate improvement.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of training programmes and opportunities for transfer of training on the performance of senior administrative staff of UCC. The descriptive survey design was employed for the study. The survey employed purposive and simple random sampling techniques in selecting a total of 158 respondents (senior administrative staff) for the study. The study revealed among others that training programmes are not administered regularly, perceptions/views of senior administrative staff about training programmes were not evaluated and their skills as well as behaviours were not assessed after training, there was inadequate practice during training and knowledge of staff were not measured after the training, the university does not place much emphasis on the application of training on the job and as well portals were not available to help store and share information with staff. The following recommendations were made; There should be regular training programmes for the senior administrative staff of UCC, more time should be allotted for practice during training, measures should be put in place by the university management to ensure that there is much emphasis on the application of knowledge acquired from training programmes, the perceptions/views of senior administrative staff about training programmes should be evaluated, skills and behaviour of senior administrative staff should be assessed/evaluated after training, an informational maps should be developed and published to be used by staff.

Jatropha curcas, a plant with great biodiesel potential is also used to reduce the population of whiteflies, Bemisia tabaci on cassava fields when planted as a hedge. We therefore, investigated the transmission of African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) by the whitefly vector from cassava to seedlings of 10 accessions of J. curcas as part of a wider investigation on the possible role of J. curcas as an alternative host of ACMV. Transmission tests were conducted in insect-proof cages using adult B. tabaci collected from ACMV-infected cassava in the field, at a rate of three adult whiteflies per J. curcas seedling and a transmission feeding period of four days. Twenty one (21) days after the infestation, leaf samples from individual plants of the 10 J. curcas accessions were tested for the presence of ACMV by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA), using the monoclonal antibodies SCRI 33. DAS-ELISA detected ACMV in five out of the ten J. curcas accessions while PCR detected it in eight of the 10 accessions. Furthermore, 18 out of the 35 Nicotiana benthamiana indicator plants mechanically inoculated with sap from symptomatic J. curcas seedlings produced symptoms typical of ACMV infection. This indicates that J. curcas is a likely host of ACMV and it may in turn, be able to infect cassava, and presumably other ACMV-susceptible hosts, in the presence of the vector.

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This study sought to determine the effect of post-training work environment on the transfer of middle-level staff competencies from 2 technical universities and 2 polytechnics in the northern sector of Ghana. The mixed study was sequential explanatory research. Respondents were drawn from the Netherlands Programme for Post-Secondary Education and Training Capacity (NPT/GHA) 45 leadership and management capacity building project for the middle-level technical universities and polytechnics staff. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide were used to gather data from respondents made up of 24 (58.5%) academic staff and 17 (41.5%) administrative staff totaling 41 respondents for the study. The closed-ended items were analysed using statistical product and service solutions version 19 and results reported using means and standard deviations. Open-ended items were thematically analysed to support results from the closed-ended item analysis. The results revealed that respondents found the relevance of staff training, learned new things and noticed an improvement in their competencies for their career prospects. However, the perception of the respondents pointed to the fact that there was little or no support from colleagues in transferring the competencies acquired from training. The study also revealed that respondents had low motivation to transfer training competencies. Since technical universities and polytechnics produce critical human resources for the industry, the post-training work environment was critical for staff training transfer with many implications for the management, leadership, growth and development of the institutions. The study recommended that training programmes should be aligned with the institutional vision, mission and goals. Again, resources committed to staff training should also budget for enhancements of the work environment to accommodate training transfer using modern technologies.