KNUST Appoints Professor Christian Agyare as 13th Vice-Chancellor

The Governing Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has appointed Professor Christian Agyare as the university’s new Vice-Chancellor for a four-year term, effective 1st August 2026 to 31st July 2030.

The decision was taken at the 292nd (Special) Meeting of the Council held on Wednesday, 13th May 2026. He will succeed Professor (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson, whose tenure ends on 31st July 2026, making him the 13th Vice-Chancellor of KNUST since its establishment in 1951.

Professor Agyare is a distinguished academic and researcher with over 25 years of service to KNUST and the global academic community. He currently serves as Provost of the College of Health Sciences, the university’s largest academic college.

He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Pharmacy from KNUST, and a PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the University of Münster, Germany. He has also held postdoctoral and research roles at Novartis/Seeding Labs in Boston and the University of California, San Francisco, contributing to advanced research in parasitic diseases and pharmaceutical sciences.

A Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, he has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications, with an H-index of 36 and more than 5,000 citations. His research spans antimicrobial resistance, natural products pharmacology, wound healing, ethnopharmacology, parasitology and cancer drug discovery.

Professor Agyare has also secured over USD 11 million in competitive research funding from international organisations including the German Research Foundation (DFG), DAAD, BBSRC, the Mastercard Foundation and the World Bank. He is widely recognised in global academic circles and serves on several international editorial boards.

Within KNUST, he has held key leadership roles including membership on major university committees and Head of the Quality Assurance and Planning Unit, where he introduced major reforms such as online appraisal systems, policy development frameworks and a smart identification card system integrating biometric and financial functions.

As Provost of the College of Health Sciences, he has overseen the introduction of new academic programmes, increased postgraduate enrolment and major infrastructure development. He has also contributed to higher education quality assurance across Africa, including serving as an international expert for the Namibia Council for Higher Education.

Professor Agyare is also noted for his commitment to mentorship, gender equity and institutional development. He is a Fellow of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Foundation and a Fellow of both the Ghana College of Pharmacists and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana.

A distinguished alumnus of Prempeh College, he is a practising pharmacist and community leader. He is married to Dr. (Pharm.) Charlotte Sena Agyare, with whom he has three children, and is a member of the Kwadaso Methodist Church.