University of Ghana attains parity in admissions
The University of Ghana says it has affirmative action for women when it comes to student admissions.
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With almost half of the overall students admission to the university (50.31 per cent for males and 49.69 for females), it said it has achieved gender parity.
It explained that for most of their programmes, for instance, the aggregates go up higher in order to admit more female students.
The Vic-Chancellor of the university, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, who disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic, was, however, quick to explain that this was not across the board because there were some programmes that at the cut off point, they already had a lot of women there and so, there was no point going up higher again to bring in women.
She added that when it comes to halls of residence for students too, they now had a lot more female blocks now than it used to be prior to 1991 when the only female residences were in Volta Hall and some parts of Mensah Sarbah Hall.
Prof. Amfo was speaking on the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day and the strides made towards improving the lot of women in education at the university.
Principal officers
Professor Amfo added that the university had also reached a point where for the first time ever, it had three of its principal officers - Chancellor, Chairperson of Council and the Vice Chancellor, being females, adding that it had never happened before, “we have the first female Chancellor, first female Chair of Council and first female Vice-Chancellor”.
She said when it came to management positions at the university too, they had a female registrar, female director of finance, female director of public affairs, female director of academic affairs, and female director of internal audit.
“For the first time ever too, we have the first female Dean of Student Affairs, first female Dean of Engineering Sciences, among many others.
So yes, we have made some strides and this has been the result of deliberate efforts over the years,” she explained.
Prof. Amfo said even though the university could say it had achieved parity, when it comes to programmes such as Mathematical and Engineering Sciences, there were fewer women pursuing those programmes and so called for more women to get into those fields of study.
She explained that for instance, the university had four colleges of education and while for two of the colleges - Humanities and Health Sciences, they had more female students than males pursuing those programmes, for College of Basic and Applied Sciences, the male population was over 60 per cent, adding that there was the need to work harder to have more women in those fields.
In addition to these, she said the university had created a special space at the Business School so that both students and lecturers who were nursing mothers could bring their babies there to be taken care of while they go about their activities.
She called on the country to be deliberate in investing in women in order to have much more women in leadership positions.
