University of Ghana strives for excellence
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, has reiterated his commitment to position the university as a world-class “Go-to university’’.
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He said he would work with the management of the university to tailor teaching and research to the needs of stakeholders and promote learning, research and scholarship by providing the needed enabling environment to maximise achievement and excellence.
Prof. Owusu said this at the congregation of the College of Humanities of the University in Accra last Saturday. More than 500 students graduated at the ceremony.
The university’s curricula, he said, would be reviewed to ensure that students from the institution were equipped with the skills needed to adapt quickly to the demands of the job market.
“Currently, management is trying to redouble efforts to diversify funding sources, manage our financial resources judiciously and have a prudent debt utilisation and management system aimed at making the university financially viable over the next five years,” he stated.
Building human capital
On capacity building, Prof. Owusu said the management of the university had provided more than GH¢ 5 million to faculty members to undertake various research projects.
The funds from the university’s internally generated funds (IGF) were to support its faculty members to raise the profile of research, saying, “the university recognises its human capital as its primary asset.”
Therefore, he said the university would continue to develop strategies to enhance its capabilities and also continue to improve its research portfolio with funding from both internal and external sources.
Prof. Owusu noted that the students’ financial aid office, since its establishment in 2005, had also contributed immensely to providing access to university education to many brilliant but needy students.
“An average of 120 students are sponsored each year through the benevolence of some corporate bodies, churches, NGOs, individuals and alumni and up to date, 2,596 students have benefited from the fund,” he stated.
Admissions
On admissions, Prof. Owusu said the university had made significant progress in reducing the gap in access to higher education between the genders.
At the beginning of the 2016/2017 academic year, he said, the university offered admission to a total of 24,312 applicants, made up of 20,621 undergraduate students and 3,691 graduate students.
At the undergraduate level, he mentioned that 3,841 of the registered students were male, while 3,770 were females while at the graduate level, 1,702 of the students were males while 1,238 were females.
Values
Delivering the commencement speech, Mr Kimathi Kuenyehia, a legal practitioner, urged the students to appreciate the efforts of their parents who had toiled to support their education.
He further advised them to develop their skills to enable them to remain relevant in their fields of endeavour.
