Public Universities Crippling Private Universities

President of Presbyterian University College, Ghana, Rev. Prof. Adow Obengis, is accusing their public counterparts of deliberate attempts to cripple them by lowering admission requirements.

Rev. Prof. Adow Obeng wants the National Council for Tertiary Education to rationalise and enforce entry grades.

He told a graduation for 681 students that the situation where state-subvented institutions admit huge numbers at the expense of private universities is questionable.

Under the theme, “Graduate Deployment: the Nexus of Higher Education and the Job Market,” the occasion saw 356 males and 325 females receive laurels.

A majority of them had between First Class to Second Class Lower Honours, with only 21 students making Third Class and Passes.

Rev. Prof. Adow Obeng expressed worry about the current trend where public universities are allowed to admit students and he says that they could have been absorbed by private universities.

“The rising appetite of these major public universities to increase enrolment amidst limited infrastructure and faculty members is a great disincentive to private universities who even struggle to admit 1,000 students in any given academic year,” he said.

"Why would these public Universities admit more fee-paying students than before, offer distance education, operate satellite campuses, run weekend, evening, sandwich programmes, and serve as mentors to private universities?" he quizzed.

To restore competition among public and private institutions, he called on government to restore some of the regulations checking the operations.

On the recent standoff between students and authorities at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), he blamed it largely on “overstretched facilities in public universities” and said “attempts should be made to curb admission figures into them to enable the Private Universities to breathe.”

According to the President, student protests in Ghana and elsewhere in the world is not a new phenomenon and that “students have every right to a peaceful protest on their campuses in response to social, personal and policy injustice.”

“However, in exercising that constitutional right, they need to be mindful of the University’s rules and regulations in order not to “fall foul of the law,” he warned.

He advised students to resist exploitation by self-seeking alumni and politicians.

“Students should not hide behind ‘social media space’ to incite people and inflame passions in protest against policies. Neither should they allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians, alumni and other bodies to cause mayhem and destructions in order to achieve their own parochial interests,” he cautioned.

“Similarly, University leaders should not undermine the capabilities of students,” he said noting that, students want better representation of their views throughout the University’s structures and are willing to engage positively and constructively in that regard," he advised.

Acting Dean of School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Prof. Kofi Agyekum commended the University for passing academic audit by its mentor institution, the University of Ghana.