Laweh Open Varsity Holds Congregation in Accra

By Abeduwaa Lucy Appiah

Laweh Open University College yesterday held its first undergraduate and post graduate congregation for 22 students in Accra.

A total of 12 students received Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Human Resource Management (HRM), Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) and Finance and Accounting (FA), made up of four females and eight males.

The remaining 10 students offered Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Finance and Accounting (FA), Human Resource Management and in International Business Management (IBM) comprising of three females and seven males.

Former Deputy Minister of Education in Charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in an address said the future of higher education was distance education hence, urged the Ministry of Education to pay attention to the benefits distance education had to offer and therefore make substantial investment in it.

According to him, higher education which was the discovery of knowledge becomes meaningless if it did not reflect in societal transformation.

Speaking on the theme, 'The year of return', Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa who is Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, charged the graduates to reflect on the 400 years of return commemorated and make a difference with the degrees awarded them by the school.

He conceded that, the dominated belief that the new way of African educated elite has let the continent down saying, the next 400 years should not be a pursuit of this same path.

"We must rededicate ourselves to a new paradigm to doing things differently to having different attitude," Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa stated.

Professor Goski Alabi, President of the college, called on government to support efforts towards the establishment of a national open university in the country.

Addressing issues related to open and distance learning, she stated that, there was the need for capacity building to retrain and retool faculty members to know that a member, teaching in a traditional university did not mean they could teach in an open learning.

She added that, there was the need to address the negative perception about open and distance learning stressing that "unfortunately some of our policy makers even make it worse".

Laweh Open University College located at Teshie-Nungua is the first and accredited Open University College in Ghana and second in West Africa.

It was established in 2014 as an open supported learning institution to offer certificates, diplomas degrees and post-graduate programmes.

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