Tertiary Institutions Urged to Expand Infrastructure to Absorb New Students

By Lawrence Vomafa-Akpalu

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The Minister of State in-Charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has urged tertiary institutions to adequately expand infrastructure in order to absorb the large number of Senior High School (SHS), students who would be seeking admission to undertake various undergraduate courses in 2020.

According to him, some 140,000 applicants are expected to enroll as afresh in 2020 and the universities needed to create more room for some 50,000 more when the first batch of the free SHS graduates climb the tertiary level.

Prof Yankah said this at the 10th congregation of the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) on Saturday in Accra.

The situation, he explained would be similar to 2013 when both the three-year and four-year SHS students sat for the West African Senior Secondary Certificates Examination and entered the university at the same time, adding that "the swell in numbers this time would be tremendous which called for infrastructure expansion in some tertiary institutions".

Prof Yankah added that the expansion trends would be carefully done within the framework of acceptable students-lecturer ratio in order to commensurate with infrastructure needs.

"The government is simply saying these boys and girls are stranded, let's be creative and rescue these kids at a critical part of their lives, or else posterity will never forgive us." he added.

He urged the graduands to be diligent anywhere they find themselves and be focused and ready to explore new opportunities.

The Vice Chancellor of the university,Prof Abednego F. Okoe Amartey in his address said a new five-year strategic plan to serve as a roadmap of the university would soon be outdoored and would be subjected to constant objective reviews to establish impact and maintain relevance.

He said the university had received accreditation to introduce new academic programmes including Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance, Business Economics, Real Estate Management and Finance Master of Philosophy in Finance and Doctor of Philosophy in Finance and Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing and other programmes.

Prof. Amartey said the university could only process a total of 6.015 out of 7.086 applicants for the 2017/2018 academic year adding that the registered fresh students stood at 4,048.

In all a total of 3,387 students including 498 diplomats, 2301 undergraduates, 588 post-graduates were awarded various degrees.

Mr Kwaku Andrews received the overall best graduating student prize, David Elewosi- Gagbe, the best undergraduate student and Zillah Boye-Doe, the best graduating diploma student.

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