UG Russian Section Receives Donation from Russian Embassy

Students in a pose with Officials
from the Russian Embassy and the University

The Russian Embassy in Ghana has donated books, manuscripts, journals, multimedia materials, manuals and belletristic materials to the Russian Section of the Department of Modern Languages.

The Russian Minister-Counsellor at the Russian Embassy and Deputy Head of Missions, Mr. Igor Degtyarev who donated the items on behalf of the Embassy explained that, before 2004, the government of Russia offered 20 state scholarships annually to students from Ghana. However, this year, it has been increased to 60 on the Russian federal budget with an extra 10 provided by the Russian major oil company “Lukoil”.

Mr. Degtyarev observed that the Russian government also awards scholarships annually to some best students from the University of Ghana to pursue higher education at the Pushkin Institute of the Russian language in Moscow.
He said that “to have another language is to possess a second soul”. He urged the students not to relent in their study of the language.

In response, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Cephas Omenyo, expressed his appreciation at the benevolence of the Russian Embassy. He was optimistic that the move would whip up the interest of the students in the Russian language.

He however made an appeal to the Russian Embassy to consider setting up a scholarship scheme for third year students of the Department for the Russian language proficiency “year abroad” programme. He explained that this has become necessary because currently, the Ghanaian government offers only five scholarships in this regard, which is woefully inadequate.

The Minister was accompanied by representatives from the Russian Embassy. Also in attendance were, the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dr. C.K.M Badasu, the coordinator of the Russian section Dr. Ildiko Csjaibok Twerefou, the Head of the Department of Modern Languages, Dr. Gamel Adam Nasser, lecturers, students and a cross section of the media.