6 New universities welcome news, but…

One notable concern about the government’s free senior high school (SHS) programme is that a number of SHS graduates are unable to access tertiary education because of the lack of space to accommodate all of them.

Many of the public universities in the country in the last three years have been oversubscribed, leaving a large number of potential applicants unable to be admitted.

It is to address this situation and encourage more SHS leavers to continue their education to the tertiary level that the government has announced the establishment of six more public universities by the end of this year. In the long run, it will help to increase the number of graduates produced annually.

They are the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Akrodie in the Ahafo Region; the University of Engineering and Agricultural Science at Bunso in the Eastern Region; the University of Health, Agriculture and Life Sciences at Kintampo in the Bono East Region; the University of Mampong in the Ashanti Region; the Local Governance and Leadership University in Accra, and the University for Sports Development.
According to the Ministry of Education, the move is to increase the gross tertiary enrolment ratio (GTER) of the country.

Tertiary education plays a vital role in the development of any nation, and studies have shown that workers with some form of tertiary education contribute to about 60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developed countries. This is why countries with GTER above 40 per cent tend to develop at a faster pace.

For the ministry, this implies that having a higher GTER will not only improve the country’s economy, but also provide students with the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the demands of the 21st Century workforce.

It is in this regard that the Daily Graphic supports the establishment of more public universities to increase the number of graduates produced in the country.

Tertiary education must be accessible to all who desire it and so, adding more universities to the already existing ones is laudable.

The Daily Graphic acknowledges that there are a reasonable number of private universities in the country, but many of them are out of the reach of the ordinary students, hence the need for more public universities.

The good thing is that most of these universities to be established are science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related, in line with the focus of the government to raise the number of SHS students admissions to 60 per cent sciences and 40 per cent humanities.

However, establishing a new university involves a lot to do with funding and physical infrastructure, in the running of the new programmes.

That is why we are wondering whether establishing new universities is the right thing to do or the existing ones could have been expanded to accommodate the SHS graduates.

With the exception of the Local Governance and Leadership University in Accra, and the University for Sports Development, all the others have departments in almost all the already existing universities.

Even with the local governance and leadership, they can easily be added or established as departments in the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), where a lot of leadership and governance courses are taught.

Additionally, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) runs Bachelor of Education for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (BEd HPER) while the University of Education Winneba (UEW) runs Bachelor of Education for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports (BEd HPERS).

This means that these two universities are already in the position to run programmes scheduled to be run by the proposed University for Sports Development.

The Daily Graphic, therefore, believes that these universities can conveniently be absorbed into the already existing ones because creating six new universities could lead to duplications and put undue pressure on the public purse.

Expansion, revamping and re-engineering the already existing universities look a more viable option than establishing completely new universities.

It is a fact that most of the existing universities have been calling for funds to expand their infrastructure, and this is the right time to do so.

The timing of this announcement is problematic, considering that the country does not have enough resources to adequately address the critical needs of existing universities.