Surpport Newly Created Public Universities To Survive – Vice Chancellor

Vice Chancellor of the Unniversity of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Prof. John Owusu Gyapong is appealing to the state to invest in newly created universities including UHAS.

Prof. Gyapong proposes the establishment of a fund to cater for the provision basic infrastructure to make the environment conducive for teaching and learning.

According to the Vice Chancellor, despite the modest gains made by UHAS, the university still has major infrastructure deficits and therefore appealed to the private sector for support and partnership, to develop the University.

“Government however needs to invest heavily in UHAS and the new universities in general for the sake of equity. A special fund should be created by the government for new Universities like UHAS,” Prof. Gyapong said at a graduation of ceremony.

“This would help us have the basic minimum infrastructure to create a conducive environment for teaching, learning and research,” he added.

In all, 554 students which consists of 44 from the School of Allied Health Sciences, 29 from the School of Medicine, 343 from the School of Nursing and Midwifery and 137 from the School of Public Health were graduated. The graduands also included 11 Masters students with six (6) are graduating with Master of Public Health, General option (General) and 5 in Master of Public Health, option in Epidemiology and Disease Control as well as 7 students from Leeds Beckett University as part of a collaboration between the two universities.

Professor John Owusu Gyapong also pleaded with the Roads and Highways Ministry to work on the bad nature of the roads leading to the school for easy access by both students and lecturers as well as non teaching staff and visitors.

He expressed grattitude to the Chinese government for its readiness to construct the Central Administration and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, which he said would begin soon. The government of Ghana, according to the Professor, would have to provide counterpart funding of about 7million cedis for the provision of water, electricity and other services to the site earmarked for the construction.

”The incubation facilities for the School of Pharmacy which is being funded by GETFund is currently under construction by TDK Atlantic Limited. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018. There is also the five-staff bungalow project being executed by Proko Ghana Limited and ZDI Ghana Limited which would also be completed hopefully by the end of 2018,” he said.

Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Prof Kwesi Yankah, who was the guest speaker, was impressed by the University's tenacity in contributing effectively to the projected 60:40 Science and Humanities ratio which several institutions originally purported to be science oriented "have regrettably ignored".

Prof Yankah, urged the graduates to go to the world of possibilities and make the University proud.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ivy Setordzi