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Changing face of the University of Ghana, Legon

Aerial view of the University of Ghana, LegonThe University of Ghana, Legon has over the years gone through many changes with the aim of offering better tertiary education to Ghanaians and foreigners.

The changes range from the review of courses and programmes to the provision of new facilities and other infrastructure.

The university, popularly referred to as Legon, the name of the village where it is located, is a member of the International Association of Universities (IAU), the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), the Association of African Universities (AAU) and the League of World Universities.

It was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission on Higher Education in the then British colonies. The Asquith Commission, which was set up in 1943 to investigate higher education, recommended among other things, the setting up of university colleges in association with the University of London. This was followed by a number of commissions in different regions.

The West Africa Commission was under the Chairmanship of the Rt. Hon. Walter Elliot. The Elliot Commission published a majority report which recommended the establishment of two university colleges in the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria, and a minority report which held that only one university college for the whole of British West Africa was feasible.

The British Government at first accepted the minority report of the Elliot Commission and decided that a university college for the whole of British West Africa should be established at Ibadan in Nigeria. But the people of the Gold Coast could not accept this recommendation. Led by the scholar and politician, the late Dr J.B. Danquah, they urged the Gold Coast Government to inform the British government that the Gold Coast could support a university college. The British government accordingly reviewed its decision and agreed to the establishment of the university college of the Gold Coast.


First site

At the time, Achimota College was in many respects one of the best institutions in Africa. It had spacious grounds, good buildings and compound, with a library of 16,000 books. There was therefore a consensus that the new university college should grow out of Achimota College, in accordance with the wishes of the people.

So on October 11, 1948, the formal opening of the University College of the Gold Coast took place in the dining hall of the western compound of Achimota College. Subsequently, the university college operated from the western compound and the secondary school on the eastern compound until the 1950s when construction work at the new site for the university college commenced, and the university moved gradually into the new campus at Legon.

Within the campus are the traditional halls of residence; Commonwealth Hall, Legon Hall, Akuafo Hall, Mensah Sarbah Hall and Volta Hall. There are also departments, lecture theatres and laboratories; sports fields and a central cafeteria. Also, there is the Great Hall, where major indoor programmes such as lectures are held. It has a seating capacity of 1,500.

The university will have a new frontage once the Tetteh Quarshie-Madina stretch of the road is completed.


Students/lecturer population

The university started in 1948 with a total of 90 students, made up of 88 males and 2 females. However, the population has increased drastically over the past 60 years.  According to the 2012-2013 academic board the university has 37,531 students made up of full-time, part-time, City Campus, weekend, distance education and sandwich programmes.

When it started initially, seven post-secondary staff: Four teaching staff and three administrators of Achimota College were appointed as the nucleus staff for the new university.

Now the university boasts 1,139 lecturers, comprising 850 males and 289 females.


Faculties

Academic life of the University of Ghana is centered on colleges, faculties, institutes/schools and centres of research/ learning. The university started with three faculties - Arts, Science and Commerce (preliminary Economics) in 1948. Now there are six faculties -Arts, Law, Science, Social Sciences, Business School and Engineering Sciences. A new conference facility at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER).


Colleges

There are two main colleges in the university. They are the College of Health Sciences which comprises five schools and an institute, and the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences which comprises two schools and an institute.


Legon Staff village

The university has a staff village which currently has 248 housing units for its junior staff. It was established to provide accommodation for artisans such as electricians, carpenters and cooks who worked at the university.


Infrastructure

As part of the process of change, the university has undertaken a number of initiatives to realise its objectives of providing quality tertiary education. The infrastructure include new halls of residence, staff bungalows, lecture halls, laboratories and the construction and expansion of roads.

Today, four new additional halls of residence to accommodate 8,000 students have been built. This is to meet the increasing demand for accommodation by students. Securing accommodation in the past was a problem and some students took advantage of the inadequacy of the halls to make money. Issues that readily come to mind are the sale of beds to fellow students and ‘perching’, resulting in overcrowding in the traditional halls of residence-Commonwealth, Legon, Akuafo, Mensah Sarbah and Volta.


New Halls

The four new halls named after Professor Alexander Kwapong, a former Vice Chancellor; Dr Hilla Limann, President of the Third Republic; Dr Jean Aka Hall, named after a distinguished alumnus who was instrumental in mobilising funds for the construction of the Jubilee Hall, and Elizabeth Frances Sey, first female graduate of the university, have eased the accommodation problem faced by students drastically. Apart from that, the new halls have also brightened the aerial view of the university campus, from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) section.

At the new halls four students occupy a room, with a spacious and conducive environment for learning. At the new halls, rainwater is harvested and  there are biogas facilities.

Four students; Ms Belinda Tweboah,  Ms Linda Tetteh and Messrs Ben Boateng and Samuel Koomson, lauded the initiative that led to the construction of the facilities. They said they believed that such huge projects should  be done in other tertiary institutions since the lack of conducive environment for sleeping or relaxation was a problem.

Ms Tweneboah said being accommodated at a hall was a great relief to her “because in the past we heard so many reports on problems with securing accommodation”.

“I am okay here and everything is going on smoothly. These facilities have brought great relief to us,” she said.

Ms Tetteh indicated that the only problem students occasionally experienced was the lack of water, adding “once this has been completely solved I believe everything would be okay”.

“I like the environment and it’s good for learning,” she said.

Messrs Boateng and Koomson  called for immediate action to address the water problem.

The Director of Physical Development and Municipal Services, Mr Philip Azundow, said the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) had disappointed the authorities since they had indicated they would provide water to at the new facilities. Notwithstanding that, he said, the authorities had been able to provide some boreholes to meet water needs of students.

The university has also allowed some private developers to build halls of residence.  These are: United Nations Hall, Bani Hall, James Topp Nelson Yankah Hall and Africa Union Hall. These are expected to provide accommodation for students at Legon.


Tolling of roads

The roads that link the various halls, departments and lecture halls are currently being given a facelift. They are being asphalted and toll booths would be installed when they are completed. This means that vehicles that enter and exit the campus will have to pay tolls.  A flat rate of GHc1 is to be paid by users of the roads upon  every entry.

A total of 9.6 kilometres of roads are being resealed and asphalted. According to Mr Azundow, Accra has expanded and many vehicles use the Legon road to avoid traffic, among other things. The tolling, he said, was to cater for the wear and tear as a result of the regular use of the roads.  The project is expected to cost GH¢7 million. The asphalted roads would also have speed humps to control the flow of vehicles.  The tolling is expected to start later this month and the six entry points to the university would have the toll booths.

According to the site engineer for the asphalting and resealing of roads, Mr Kwaku Tsegah, 70 per cent of the asphalting and resealing of the roads had been done. The overpass under construction at Legon

“Everything is okay and the work is going on smoothly,” he said, and expressed the hope that work would be completed on schedule.

Works remaining, he said, included the construction of drains and asphalting of the road leading to the Teachers’ Fund Hostel.


Commercial, private vehicle drivers

While some drivers have welcomed the initiative, others think it would increase transport fares on campus.

A taxi driver, Stephen Quartey, said driving on good roads  “prolongs the lifespan of your vehicle”, and added that although it would mean extra cost to people, the idea was not bad.

“I know some of my colleagues will not agree with me but we must pay for what we destroy. Everything is government but we have to be  responsible too,” he said.

Adjei Mensah, another taxi driver, strongly disagreed with his colleague. For him, the authorities were not considering the fact that the toll would be passed on to students.

“Once I pay GH¢ 1, I will also add that GH¢ 1 to the lorry fare,” he said, and urged the authorities to either scrap the initiative or reduce the toll to 50 pesewas.

However, Mr Azundow said the intention was not to burden students but to ensure that the roads were in good shape regularly for the smooth movement of people. Moreover, he said, the late President J.E.A. Mills sanctioned the initiative.


Students

Rachael Ahiable believes “We don’t have to be  going out and coming as and when we feel like it”. We must use our time and  money judiciously because if you want to be going out and coming in it means you would have to pay more”.

Moses Arthur said it was up to the authorities to take decisions that would improve facilities and infrastructure to promote academic activities.

“We are not going to be on campus forever. All you have to do is to regulate your movements to save you the trouble of spending all your money on transportation fare,” he said.

Amelia Botchway said the authorities had decided to implement the initiative and what everybody had to do was to brace up for it.She supported the initiative and said that state institutions tended to rely too much on government for funding.

“I believe this would boost the internally-generated funds of the university. Money generated could be used to put up more facilities to admit more students. It is a good idea,” she said, adding that “Ghanaians don’t want to be creative but do things the same way all the time”.


Closed Circuit Television

To maintain the credibility of its examination and deal with the practice of cheating, the university has mounted closed circuit television (CCTV) systems in the examination halls. The authorities would not give much detail on the facilities but believe it would go a long way to ensure sanity during examination.


Control of students in traditional halls

To control the number of students who access the halls, the university purchased a turnstile machine to begin a pilot exercise at the Commonwealth Hall but before the equipment could be installed, it was burnt by suspected arsonists on April 30, 2013 at about 2 a.m.

The equipment, bought at a cost of GH¢ 48,000, was supposed to be used as part of the university’s measures to ensure that the halls of residence remained decongested.

The turnstile machine, also called a baffle gate, is a gate which allows one person to pass at a time. It can also be used to enforce one-way traffic of people and in addition, can restrict passage to only people who insert a coin, ticket or pass.


Other projects

There is also the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) Conference facility for the hosting of various programmes. The facility has been completed, creating the opportunity for the hosting of programmes.

Other ongoing projects include the Earth and Health Science infrastructure. A teaching hospital project has also taken off.

The Balme Library pond has also been given a new lease of life. There are 34 new boreholes to augment water supply from the water company.

The university is looking for a strategic partner to complete  work  on the stadium, along with the provision of staff housing project.


Security/police station

Eleven years after the establishment of the university, a police station was put up (1959) as part of measures to maintain law and order in and outside campus. Petty thefts, robberies and other criminal activities were reported in the past.

However, the Head of Security, ACP  Amadu Salifu (retd), told the Daily Graphic that there have been improvement in the security system. For instance, he said, when he took over in 2007, the first thing he observed was that guards had not gone through the requisite training. Moreover, he said, some of them were not active because they were old and weak, and “supervision too was almost zero”.

“The first thing we did when I took over was to revamp the system to get more active guards. I convinced the authorities and we did a mass recruitment,” he said.

Mr Salifu said the number of guards was subsequently increased from 200 to 321, while items such as uniforms, raincoats, batons and torches were requested for to enable the guards work efficiently.

“With the new halls I think we should have about 400 guards,” he said. Now, he added, apart from sensitisation of students and staff, there were mobile patrols in the day  and regular night patrols.

The entry points to the campus are closed at midnight and opened at 5 a.m.  After 7 p.m. no university vehicle is supposed to enter or go out of the campus.

Mr Salifu said he monitored the “security guards to ensure that we are working”, adding that there were also plainclothes security personnel who monitor and report security issues.

His worry is that some students did not take security issues seriously when it came to petty thefts. For instance, he said, while some of the students left their doors ajar, others did not assist in investigations when into petty thefts.

“Some of them also allow themselves to be duped by confidence tricksters.


Vice Chancellor

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, told the Daily Graphic after the naming of the Atta Mills/Akua Kuenyehia Law Faculty Building, among other things, that the university community was waking up to the fact that it had to develop its infrastructure rapidly to cope with the large number of students.

“We have a large number of students these days, compared to 20 years ago. So it is inevitable for us to push the agenda of developing our infrastructure,” he said.

By Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic/Ghana

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