We want to make UPSA world-class — Prof. Alabi
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Joshua Alabi, has said the authorities of the UPSA are committed to creating a world-class higher educational institution that is globally recognised.
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"The vision is to create a world-class higher educational institution that is nationally entrenched, regionally relevant and globally recognised.
"We will create an environment that community members — staff, students, governing council and alumni — will be proud to be associated with and also look forward to coming back to," he said.
Prof. Alabi said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic at the ongoing conference of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programmes (ACBSP) in Atlanta in the United States of America (USA).
The ACBSP is the biggest and fastest-growing accreditation body for business schools in the world. It currently has 1,215 member campuses, 235 of which are located outside of the USA.
As part of the four-day conference, the UPSA received the prestigious ACBSP accreditation. It is the first in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve that accreditation, giving it world-class recognition.
Academic performance
Prof. Alabi said the UPSA had made some strides in that regard, citing students' academic performance as one of them.
He said in 2014, for instance, UPSA students outperformed the global average by achieving 51.93 per cent, while the American average was 51.37 per cent, with 51.29 per cent as the global average on the Peregrine Outboard Examination which is an independent test for business schools in America and across the world.
He also mentioned improvement in the physical infrastructure of the school as another achievement.
Student population
"We have also been able to transform the physical environment into one of the most ultra-modern campuses in Ghana. Today, the UPSA has a 6,000-capacity lecture hall complex, a six-storey ICT mediated library with a seating capacity of 1,600 at a go," he said.
Prof. Alabi said the student population had been increased from 1,187 in 2005 to 12,000 in 2016.
"Today, the UPSA is not just a brand but an institution of choice. The university has become a competitive institution of choice. To this end, we have been able to position UPSA as a unique business education and research institution that blends scholarship with professionalism; a university of excellence in Africa and beyond," he added.
