Sanitising tertiary admissions in Ghana
It is a nightmare for parents and independent prospective applicants to tertiary institutions when admissions to these institutions are advertised.
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This academic year (2016/2017), application vouchers to enable online application to most tertiary institutions in Ghana cost an average of GH¢ 200.
This is after the ward has gone through ‘cut-throat’ termly fees of an average of GH¢ 700 at the senior high school (SHS) level. My maths is not good, but multiplying GH¢ 700 by three is most likely to produce a figure of GH¢ 2,100, for the three terms most SHSs run in an academic year. This is minus pocket money, study materials and other ‘unlawful charges’ some headmasters impose.
One would have expected that after having sacrificed the meagre income of the household to see one brilliant child through SHS, the woes would have abated, but sadly, in this part of the world called Ghana, the woes of the prospective undergraduate would have just begun.
Before being admitted, one has to fill out an admission form which is supposed to be a normal process, but unfortunately, this is abnormal in Ghana. In order not to stay at home a whole year for failing to secure admission to tertiary institution due to failure to meet an admission cut-off point, which in most instances is not made public, prospective applicants are compelled to apply to a minimum of two tertiary institutions, just to be in a somewhat safe situation.
False hope
Most tertiary institutions in Ghana advertise for those with at least a grade of C6 or better in four core and two elective subjects. This implies that a prospective applicant with C6 in all the six subjects, with an aggregate of 36, qualifies for entry into a tertiary institution, per National Accreditation Board (NAB) entry requirements. Realistically, which tertiary institution worth its salt, will admit an applicant with aggregate 36? Most tertiary institutions hardly go beyond aggregate 20.
As a result of this lack of transparency on the part of the tertiary institutions to publicise their admission cut-off aggregate points, prospective applicants with aggregate 36 do put in applications and hope to be admitted, which in all respects is a false hope. Most tertiary institutions see the application process as an easy way of generating funds at the expense of poor parents. This must be curbed!
Publish cut-off point
The first solution to this naked robbery of poor parents by some tertiary institutions, is for NAB to compel all tertiary institutions to publicise their admission cut-off aggregate points for all their programmes offered in their adverts to give a better picture to prospective applicants.
Secondly, the government can set up a central admissions service, modelled on the type set up for admission to SHS by junior high school (JHS) graduates. This is the system practised in the United Kingdom (UK) and it works perfectly. Prospective applicants to all tertiary institutions in the UK, be it public or private tertiary institution, must apply through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). A one-off application fee is paid by an applicant, which enables the applicant to apply for three programmes, be it at the same university, or three different universities. This eliminates the tendency of some tertiary institutions to use prospective applicants as ‘cash cows.’
If the admission application process was expensive in the 1990s as it is today, then people like myself would have had no chance of entering university. I applied through UCAS to study in the UK, and was unable to afford the application fee of five Great British Pounds, and yet I was offered admission, and today, I am a lecturer, after having obtained my LLB and LLM degrees in the UK.
The writer is a lecturer at the School of Administration
University of Education, Winneba
[email protected]