Private universities bleeding from unfair policies
THE President of the Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG), Rev. Prof. E.A. Obeng, has called for an even playing field for the public and private tertiary institutions to function.
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Over the years, he said, the private universities had bled from unfair national policies, which needed to be reversed in the interest of the nation.
Prof. Obeng said this in an address at the matriculation ceremony for pioneer postgraduate students of the PUCG, at the Akuapem Akropong campus of the university last Wednesday.
He mentioned “the tortuous path and cost of affiliation accreditation for new and existing programmes, and taxes paid at the end of every academic year on imaginary earning,” as some of the unfair situations the private universities found themselves.
Besides, he said, there seemed to be a new threat looming for products of private universities explaining that some ministers of state had made public pronouncements that suggested that job placement of diploma and graduate nurses trained in the private institutions must not be the burden of the government.
Matriculation
A total of 264 students were enrolled on the Master of Education (M.Ed) Educational Studies programme being run on three campuses of the university, namely Akropong, Abetifi and Kumasi.
The M.Ed programme is affiliated to the University of Cape Coast, and students enrolled on it came from varied professional backgrounds, including teaching, police, banking nursing, insurance and pastoral work.
Importance
Stressing the important role private universities continued to play in the development of the country's human resource, the PUCG President said in the last 20 years, the institutions had provided opportunity to people who otherwise would not have had access to university education due to their work schedules, or unavailability of space in the public universities.
"Products from the private universities hold sensitive positions in the social, political and economic systems of the country and their contributions to all aspects of the country's life are considerable," he added.
Other challenges
Rev. Prof. Obeng mentioned other challenges facing postgraduate education in the country to include completion rate and funding.
"In a number of Ghanaian universities, postgraduate students are not able to finish their studies on time due to one frustrating situation or the other," he said, and added that the PUCG would do everything possible to ensure that the students completed their programme on time.
He disclosed that the university had plans to introduce other postgraduate programmes, including M.Sc in Natural Resource Management, M.A in International Development Studies, and M.Sc Environmental Health and Sanitation, all of which were awaiting approval from the National Accreditation Board.
About PUCG
The PUCG, which was established by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in 2003 with one campus at Abetifi, Kwahu, has expanded to five campuses in the country.
Affiliated to the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, PUCG’s decision to locate some of its campuses in the semi-urban areas of Ghana has made higher education accessible and affordable to the people in those areas.
