Adopt technology-based curricula. Veep tells African varsities
The vice-president, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, has proposed a more radical approach to policy in university education and asked that the universities should adopt technology-based curricula to bring this about.
He noted that the lessons of globalisation and the impact of technological change had not been taken seriously since student intake was still dominated by the humanities with nearly 60 per cent of students in the public universities pursuing courses in the humanities.
Opening the second Africa Universities Summit at the University of Ghana yesterday, Mr Amissah-Arthur also expressed concern that gender access to the universities still fell below standards.
He said female students constituted just a third of the current university population with only a handful enrolled in the science-oriented courses.
Summit
The conference, being held on the theme: “Globalisation and policy directions for African High Education”, will explore how to educate Africa’s increasing number of young people. It will also discuss funding of public and private universities, leadership and governance, internationalisation and intra-continental staff movement, among other issues.
Commitment to higher education
Mr Amissah-Arthur said the government would continue to provide the resources necessary to further enhance higher education.
“We cannot ignore the challenges of doing things the same way even as the world moves on,” he added.
He brought into focus, the dwindling public resources against increased demand for them and, therefore, how the level of funding to the universities could be sustained in order not to disrupt the achievement of their mandate.
He said the constraints on the national budget required the universities to be at the forefront of the process for identifying alternative solutions.
The vice-President said African universities could continue to be relevant to the aspirations of the people who financed their activities by constant re-invention and using the best means to achieve goals.
Touching on the theme, Mr Amissah-Arthur said it was an admission of the overwhelming impact of globalisation, cautioning that Africa needed to avert the danger of being overtaken by events.
Vice-Chancellor
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, for his part, spoke on the need for African universities to produce graduates who had a wider perspective of issues.
On that score he said the University of Ghana needed to have more international faculties to take in more international students in order not to lose out on the competition.
Prof. Aryeetey called on the government to remove the restrictions on cross-border students to allow for other nationals to freely enrol in the university.
He asked African universities to play a more aggressive role in strategising to woo more international students.
