Increase Post Graduate output - Vice Chancellor

Accra, April 26, GNA - The Very Reverend Professor Samuel Kwasi Adjepong former Vice Chancellor of university of Cape Coast, on Sunday challenged the State Universities to increase the annual output of Post Graduates to serve as human resource base to feed the educational institutions.

He said: "The increasing demand for quality tertiary education coupled with the growing number of Private Universities in the country calls for drastic measures to ensure that highly qualified lecturers are available to meet the challenges."

Prof. Adjepong, who is the Principal of the Methodist University College Ghana (MUCG), was speaking to the Ghana News Agency after a thanksgiving service to climax activities marking its maiden congregation.

In all, 54 pioneers graduated with degrees in two disciplines - Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Economics - with six of them receiving First Class Honours while 16 obtained Second Class Upper.

The rest had Second Class Lower Degrees with only one person obtaining a Third Class.

Prof. Adjepong said most of the private tertiary institutions depended on part-time lecturers from the State Universities, "this is not good enough as the lecturers are stressed to their outmost limit, reducing their productivity".

He also identified funding, accommodation, infrastructure and attractive remunerations as the greatest challenges facing tertiary education in the country.

He, therefore, appealed to religious institutions, organizations and individuals to support and sponsor students as well as adopt specific departments and resource it. The Government should also establish special fund for research work to be accessed by both private and state institutions to ensure that universities met their core functions of teaching, research and community service.

The MUCG Principal said such measures would reduce the cost of tertiary education and offer the less privileged the opportunity to have access to university education.

Meanwhile the Right Rev. Felix Doni Kwame, Past Chairman of General Superintendent of the Sunyani District of the Methodist Church, urged educational institutions founded by religious institutions to serve as good models.

Rev. Kwame, who was preaching at the MUCG thanksgiving service to climax its maiden congregation, appealed to the graduates to influence their generation and serve as light to the world with the knowledge acquired.

The University, which had its accreditation in the year 2000 to offer degree programmes in Business Administration and Social Studies, has campuses in different parts of the country including Wenchi, Techiman and Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region and Akatsi in the Volta Region.

It currently has a student population of 740, made up of 436 men and 306 women.