The President-elect of the Society of Actuaries (SOA), Mr. John W. Robinson, has paid a working visit to the Actuarial Unit of the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
The visit by Mr Robinson formed part of efforts by the Department, under the faculty of Accounting and Finance, to deepen ties with the global professional body.
The Society of Actuaries is a globally established professional body that organises examinations for its members to become Associates and Fellows of the Society. Members are spread across 100 countries in the world.
Mr Robinson, who is the first Black SOA president, was accompanied by a team including the Senior Director in charge of International Relations at SOA, Mr Andrew Peterson.
In his welcome address, the Head of the Department of Banking and Finance at UPSA, Dr. Edward Atta-Botchwey congratulated Mr Robinson on behalf of the Dean of the Faculty of Accounting and Finance, Prof. Raymond Dziwornu, for his election to the SOA leadership.
He noted that the historic visit by the President of SOA is an endorsement by the international professional body of the quality of teaching and learning as well as the quality of UPSA graduates.
He added that the visit will also open a new chapter in the annals of the University as it seeks to entrench its Actuarial Science program.
The two teams later held a roundtable discussion focusing on strategic collaboration and ways to support the UPSA’s Actuarial Department to subscribe to the SOA’s Marketable Micro-credentials programs such as Pre-Actuarial Foundations, Actuarial Science Foundations and Data Science for Actuaries.
The Micro-credentials programs, Dr Botchwey explained, will equip Actuarial students of the University to sharpen their skills in the actuarial profession, making them globally competitive and highly employable.
Dr Botchwey also outlined some challenges confronting actuarial lecturers and students, and how the SOA could partner the University to address some of these challenges.
Mr John Robinson, in his response, disclosed urgent plans to facilitate the enlistment of UPSA into the SOA listing of Universities and Colleges with Actuarial Programs (UCAP), a move that will see UPSA become the first accredited and certified Actuarial study centre in Ghana and the third in Africa.
Through the UCAP, students from UPSA will benefit from full reimbursement of fees and study materials when they enrol for the SOA preliminary professional examinations.
Candidates and faculty members will also receive sponsorship for SOA approved on-campus events with international travel opportunities to SOA conferences via the University Support Actuary mentor program.
