THE government has been called upon to initiate action for legislative reforms in the administration of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to ensure that private tertiary institutions benefit from state financial assistance.
This would enable private tertiary institutions to spread across the country, have access to the requisite educational infrastructure and logistics to facilitate the provision of quality education for the youth who could not enter the few and overstretched public tertiary institutions.
The Council Chairman of the Christian Service University College (CSUC), Prof. Sam Afranie, made the call at the 32nd congregation of the university in Kumasi on the theme, “Quality Manpower Development; the Role of Private Universities".
He pointed out that it was when the government met the obligation of adequately resourcing private tertiary institutions, just as it was doing for public ones, that the youth would be able to study in a conducive atmosphere, devoid of congestion.
The council chairman said this would also enable them to develop their potential more appropriately to support sustainable national development.
In all, 287 students from the departments of Business Studies and Theology received honours in their degree programmes.
The figures indicated about 179.16 per cent increase over last year’s figure of 104 graduates from the same programmes.
Twenty–five of the graduates, seven of whom were females, obtained First Class honours, with 113 of them securing Second Class Upper, while 139 of the graduates secured Second Class honours (Lower Division).
Prof. Afranie said the CSUC, affiliated to the University of Ghana, was fully committed to the provision of quality education to enable it to contribute meaningfully to accelerated national development.
Congratulating the graduates on their sense of discipline and hard work, Prof. Afranie said the university had already acquired 11acres at Sabin Akrofrom to be developed as a second campus of the institution.
He gave the assurance that the land would be fully developed to reduce the problem of accommodation among students.
The President of the CSUC, Professor Emmanuel Frempong, for his part, said in line with providing programmes relevant to the needs of society and national aspirations, the university would introduce a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing next year.
The university authorities, he noted, were initiating the requisite accreditation procedures.
Already, he said, the CSUC had introduced a programme in Communication and that 43 students had been admitted.
The Managing Director of ECOBANK, Mr Samuel Adjei, pointed out that manpower development had now been identified as one of the key pillars of social development and economic growth throughout the world.
He said it had also become a critical and important component of the agenda to enhance growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction.
Mr Adjei said with the emergence of global knowledge and technology, tertiary education had assumed strategic importance because it determined how a country fared when measuring the standard of living of a particular state.
He said while public tertiary institutions were contributing to the development of the human resource base, financial constraints had impeded their growth, making it difficult for those who qualified to gain access to develop their full potential.
He pointed out that while most public universities did not make any room for workers who would want to study alongside working, private universities provide this level of flexibility, making it possible for a large number of workers to access university education to improve their status.
It is therefore important for policy makers to review their policies and provide adequate financial support to private universities to enable them to contribute effectively to national human resource capacity building, he stated.
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