Save EP University College from closure
AN imminent closure is looming over the cash-strapped Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC) in Ho.
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The acting President of EPUC, Dr Tsatsu Adogla-Bessa, has therefore made a passionate plea to the leadership of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana (EPCG), public-spirited individuals and well-meaning corporate bodies to come to the aid of the institution financially.
“EPUC is currently graded poor for financial sustainability and the attainment of charter will be an illusion if we are unable to demonstrate financial sustainability,” he said.
Dr Adogla-Bessa made the startling revelations in a report at the 14th graduation ceremony of EPUC in Ho last week Friday.
He said the university college had a full-time work force of 54, comprising 20 faculty, eight administrative senior members, and 18 senior and junior staff.
Meanwhile, the acting EPUC President said efforts were underway to recruit the requisite expertise to fill in some of the vacancies in the institution.
Admission drive
Further, he said EPUC was intensifying its admission drive and plans to introduce new programmes to augment students’ enrolment.
In all, 248 students from both the Ho and Greenhills campuses of the university were awarded bachelor degrees in 15 programmes.
From the Ho campus, eight students were awarded Diploma in Human Resource Management, while 31 from the Greenhills campus were awarded Certificate in Music.
The areas included agribusiness, animal science and fisheries, accounting and finance, corporate secretaryship and management, as well as credit management and finance.
Others are Human Resource Management and Organisation Development, Marketing, Education (Arts), Education (Basic), English, French, Governance Studies, Integrated Development Studies, and Social and Community Development.
Addressing the guests, the Chairman of the Governing Council of EPUC, Dr George Mawusi Afeti, said private educational institutions positively complemented the human capacity development efforts of the public educational institutions, especially at the tertiary level.
“Private universities continuously absorb numerous qualified students who do not gain admission into public universities, simply because of the limited absorption capacity of the state-owned universities.”
“With the spike in enrolments in senior high schools, thanks to the free SHS Programme, the pressure on the public tertiary education system in the country will only increase, not decrease,” he said.
Burden sharing
Dr Afeti pointed out that in a time of crisis, burden sharing was a wise strategy to adopt, and that highlighted the need for the government to support private universities to burden-share the tertiary education pressure on the public universities.
Such a government-facilitated arrangement, he maintained, would directly benefit the young people of the country.
Dr Afeti congratulated the fresh graduates and entreated them to serve humanity with honesty and humility with the training they acquired from EPUC.
