• About us
• Mission
• Learning to learn
• UM expertise
• Staff
• Projects
• Contact MUNDO

Prof. Dr. Gerard Mols plants Tree of Knowledge in Ghana

On 11 December 2009, Prof. Dr. Gerard Mols, Maastricht University’s rector magnificus, accompanied Annechien Deelman, project manager at Mundo, to Tamale in Ghana, to attend a graduation ceremony during the 10th congregation of the University for Development Studies (UDS).

On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Mols, signed with the Vice-Chancellor of UDS a Memorandum of Understanding to seal “an intimate relationship between the two institutions”. Through Mundo, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FHML) collaborated with UDS on a project to support the implementation and development of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in UDS’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. FHML also supported the medical school in their project to set up a clinical training programme in the North of the country. Hopefully, this will increase the number of medical doctors remaining in the Northern region. This project took off in 2005 and runs till the end of May 2010.

In his speech, Prof. Dr. Mols, who is also chairman of the board of Mundo, stressed the importance of their work, “beyond the scope of a project, Mundo’s partners engage in open-minded partnerships (…) which lead to knowledge sharing, the advancement of ideas (…) and ultimately contribute to sustainable capacity development”. He also shortly elaborated on Maastricht University’s unique PBL approach and congratulated UDS for having been so receptive to integrate it in its medical curriculum.

Prof. Dan J Ncayiyana, former Vice-chancellor of Durban University of Technology in South Africa and keynote speaker at this event, also dedicated a considerable part of his speech to praise the benefits of PBL methodology and referred UM as an example of best practice.

In the afternoon, Prof. Dr. Mols planted a baobab tree, also called “Tree of Knowledge”. According to an African proverb, “Knowledge is like a baobab tree - one person alone cannot embrace it."  The baobab tree is also the symbol of UDS, representing, as Mols puts it, “the institution’s resilience and fortitude”. In this specific case, this tree stands for fruitful collaboration between North and South.

Active since 1997, Mundo has a long record of projects carried out in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.

Click here for the full version of Prof. Dr. Gerard Mols’s speech

Click here to read Prof. Dan J Ncayiyana’s speech