IPS remaned University of Professional Studies

He said the university, under his administration, was going to improve on research, making it more community based to benefit the Ghanaian society with focus on its immediate environs.

Prof. Alarbi said the university had been transformed from a small school with less than 2,000 students and an affiliate to the University of Ghana into a fully fledged university with the capacity to train quality human resource for national development.

The newly inducted vice chancellor called for active support from the university’s council, members of convocation, staff and the entire student body for the school’s growth.

He said the university would soon commence doctorate degrees and added that there were plans to expand infrastructure that would cater for the growing student population.

The Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Kofi Awoonor, who was a guest of honour, charged universities to restructure their courses to impact more on the communities within which they existed.

According to him, most tertiary institutions, especially the traditional ones, have failed to make their operations relevant to residents in the communities of their operations. He lauded Prof. Alarbi for his hard work and dedication that had seen the massive transformation of UPS.

He urged the university’s authority not to relent in their effort to improve on standards but to strive to achieve more.

A former Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh Enyo, said the gains made at the UPS over the last four years were a demonstration of the government’s commitment to invest in higher education. Over the period, Mr Tetteh Enyo said, two public universities had been built in the Volta and Brong Ahafo regions while IPS had been upgraded into a fully fledged university.

He pledged the government’s continued support for efforts to grow the university.

The UPS was established in 1965 as a private institution by its first Director, Nana J.K Amponsah. It provided tuition in business professional courses in accounting and marketing at the time. In 1978, the government took over the school through a decree. The IPS Act, 566 (1999), was passed to establish the school as a tertiary institution with a mandate to train students in accountancy and management.

In April 1999, it was granted accreditation to run its undergraduate degree programme under the tutelage of the University of Ghana. The school got a presidential charter in September 2008.

The school’s student population has grown from 1,571 in 2005 to about 8,000 currently. The presidential assent that made the school a university was signed by President John Mahama on October 9, 2012.

Story: Justice Baidoo