Christian Service University (CSU) held an end-of-service ceremony and unveiled a festschrift in honour of Professor Samuel Kofi Afrane, the university’s first and immediate past Vice-Chancellor, on Sunday, September 27, 2026, at the university’s auditorium.
The ceremony marked the close of Prof. Afrane’s decade-long tenure as President and Vice-Chancellor of CSU, a period during which the university’s Chancellor, Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, said his leadership strengthened the institution’s academic profile, expanded its institutional vision and deepened its commitment to its Christian mission.
The festschrift, a scholarly tribute volume compiled in Prof. Afrane’s honour, comprises eleven chapters authored by eleven scholars addressing themes within and adjacent to planning, the discipline with which Prof. Afrane’s academic career has been closely associated through his years at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The volume carries a foreword by Professor Emeritus Kwafo Adarkwa, which situates Prof. Afrane’s contribution within Ghana’s broader scholarly tradition.
In his remarks, the Chancellor described the essays as engaging wider academic conversations on development, governance and sustainability, and cited the volume’s own framing of planning as a discipline that “concerns people, communities, institutions, resources, and the way society organises itself for the present and the future.” He also noted that the themes speak directly to the mission of universities as institutions that shape society through teaching, research and service.
Addressing the gathering, Prof. Afrane reflected on a career spanning teaching and planning, describing both as vocations he did not set out to choose but grew into over the course of his professional life. “I have come thus far by grace and grace alone,” he said. He recalled that his doctoral research had anticipated a shift of jobs from major commercial centres into residential areas as communication technology advanced, a trend he said has since become increasingly visible. He credited his leadership approach to a combination of vision, determination and consistent engagement with the people he worked with, drawing on lessons from his years of service at both KNUST and CSU.
Prof. Afrane’s academic and professional record also includes service on several boards, councils and committees at local, national and international levels, alongside consultancy engagements in planning and institutional development.
The event also featured the presentation of citations and the reading of goodwill messages including one from the Council, Management and staff of the University.
Present at the ceremony were the University Chancellor, Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Kwaku Asante; the Council Chairman, Lawyer Kwame Boafo; the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Stephen Banahene; the Registrar, Mr. Andrews Kingsley Doku; Members of the Management Board; staff, alumni and students of CSU, members of the clergy and academia; representatives from KNUST and other institutions; and the media.
