GETFund to assist private varsities
President John Mahama has asked the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to come up with modalities for supporting private tertiary institutions in the country.
Advertisement
That kind of support, he said, should be in respect of literature, transportation and software for the management of university examinations and students’ records.
In an address read on his behalf at a durbar to climax the 10th anniversary of the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG) at Fiapre in the Brong Ahafo Region last Saturday, President Mahama also implored the GETFund administration to provide some minimum support for staff training in private tertiary institutions annually.
He explained that the government was aware of the challenges confronting those institutions, especially issues of inadequate funding and insufficient teaching and learning materials, among other needs.
He gave an assurance that the state would support the good services private tertiary institutions were providing to help train the required human resource for national development.
The highlight of the durbar, which was on the theme, ‘‘A Decade of Catholic University Education in Ghana: Challenges and Prospects,’’ was the joint graduation and matriculation of 243 and 896 students, respectively.
From a modest beginning with 50 students, the CUCG has a current student population of 4,361, while it has so far trained 1,907 people who are contributing in diverse ways to national development.
Among the dignitaries who graced the occasion were members of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, including the Chancellor of the university, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, and the President of the conference, the Most Rev Joseph Osei Bonsu; traditional rulers, as well as some members of government and Parliament.
President Mahama noted that one of the main reasons the CUCG was located in the Brong Ahafo Region was to make tertiary education accessible to people in the middle belt and the northern sector of the country.
‘‘This university college continues to be a reliable tertiary education provider for rural Ghana and that in itself is an achievement worth noting.
The prospects for the CUCG are vast and the government looks forward to observing this institution attain its full potential,’’ he stressed.
President Mahama observed that following the oil find in Ghana, the country had attained a middle-income status and, therefore, it needed the required critical human resource that would articulate and champion its development.
He emphasised that in today’s global world, there were many opportunities and rigorous relevant and appropriate training schemes required to equip the youth in particular to make them competitive.
The President again noted that distance was no longer a barrier to opportunities, and that with the requisite knowledge and skills, one could take advantage of those numerous chances available, adding, ‘‘Your institution is a reliable development partner in this knowledge economy and I salute you for this.’’
In that regard, Mr Mahama said there was the need for a continued review of the content of the programmes of the CUCG to satisfy the dynamic skill requirements of the job market.
The Vice-Chancellor of the CUCG, Prof. James Hawkins Ephraim, proposed that if a public tertiary institution could be granted autonomy from its inception, then private universities, having undergone mentoring for 10 years and over, ought to be granted the same charter to enable them to be autonomous and bring about innovations.
‘‘I am making this appeal to His Excellency John Mahama, the President of the Republic of Ghana, for his consideration,’’ he said.
He said the university college was concerned about attracting and retaining quality human capital and searching for a clear governance structure, while subjecting itself to the dictates of the National Accreditation Board and the guidance of its mentoring universities, namely, the University of Ghana (UG) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC).
The Vice-Chancellor of the UG, Prof Ernest Aryeetey, in a speech read on his behalf, disclosed that the university had now decided that all affiliate institutions adopted its new four-year degree programme with effect from the 2014/2015 academic year, which stipulated that they would be expected to mount the UG’s required courses, while all graduates who obtained its degrees would be required to do those courses.
Also in an address read on his behalf, the Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Prof Domwin Dabire Kuupole, gave an assurance that the UCC would continue to collaborate with and support the CUCG in strengthening its teaching and research capacity until it became a chartered fully-fledged autonomous university.
Daily Graphic/Ghana