UCC admits 59 prisoners for diploma programmes

Fifty nine inmates of the Nsawam Prisons have been admitted by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), to pursue various diploma programmes in business and education through the distance mode of education.

Out of the number admitted, 27 of the inmates would study Commerce, (Management and Accounting options), while the remaining 32 would pursue Diploma programme in Junior High School Education (Science, Mathematics, English, Social Studies options).

They are among a total of 13,089 students who had been admitted into the university to pursue various academic programmes.

The figure is made up of 11,908 undergraduates and 1,181 post-graduates comprising 6,556 males and 6,523 females.

The admission of the inmates from the Nsawam Prisons was in line with the College of Distance Education (CoDE) of UCC of ensuring that people acquire tertiary education without any barrier.

It falls under the Prison Inmates Tertiary Education Programme (PITEP) which was a collaboration between CoDE, the Ghana Prisons Service and Plan Volta Foundation, (a non-governmental organisation), leading to the establishment of a study centre at the Nsawam Prisons.

The event was for students from study  centres in the Western and Central Regions  enrolled for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Similar events were held for students from study centres in categorised zones in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale for the southern, middle and northern zones respectively.

The matriculation was for both undergraduate and postgraduate students who would be pursuing the studies through the distance mode of education.

The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof Joseph Ghartey Ampiah  said that the admission statistics for the academic year was favourable to that of the previous year, saying, “The percentage of female undergraduates has gone up significantly from 48.3 per cent in 2018/2019 to 20.2 per cent in 2019/2020”.
“This shows a remarkable increase of 1.99 per cent of female population over last year’s increase of 1.5 per cent,” he said.

For the post-graduate studies, Prof Ampiah explained that, the ratio of male to female was 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent.
He announced that, the College of Distance Education (CoDE) would soon roll out a virtual classroom for post-graduate studies for the 2019/2020 academic year.
The facility, he said, would include video conferencing technology and soft course modules, saying, “This will enable students to have access to lectures wherever they may be”.
“The college will later extend this facility to undergraduate students at centres where we gave permanent structures. Additionally, plans are underway to upload all course modules on the university’s e-learning platform and give students access to soft information,” he indicated.
Touching on the introduction of new programmes, Prof Ampiah explained that CoDE had introduced Early Childhood Education, Primary School Education and Junior High School Education.
The college, he said, had initiated processes to enrol programmes from the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences to roll out undergraduate programmes such as BSc. Economics and BSc. Economics and Finance as well as postgraduate programmes in MSc. Microfinance, MSc. Economics, MSc. Social Science, MSc. Data Management and Analysis, and MSc. Economics of Technology and Development.
“The intention is to bring on board as many programmes as possible that are run in the conventional system to the distance mode so that applicants will have a variety of choices of programmes,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor stated that, Post-graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme had been mounted for distance students at four centres, namely, Cape Coast, Accra, Kumasi and Tamale.

FROM DAVID O. YARBOI-TETTEH, CAPE COAST

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