University of Ghana exceeds gender parity ratio in enrolment

University of Ghana has exceeded its target of achieving female to male enrolment ratio of 50:50 before 2020, the Vice-Chancellor (V-C), Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu has announced.

He said out of the total enrolment of 18,212 students for the 2018/2019 academic year, 9,288 were females and 8,924 were males representing a total enrolment ratio of 51:49 females to male.

Prof. Owusu said this at the 2018/2019 matriculation held in Accra on Saturday.

He said the university, as listed by the Ghana Education Service offered concessionary admission to qualified applicants from less endowed schools.

Prof. Owusu mentioned that the university would work closely with relevant agencies to expand its large intake for the expected number of applicants to the university next year, following the graduation of the first batch of Senior High School (SHS) leavers under the Free SHS programme.

On some challenges of the university, the V-C said the university in an effort to address the accommodation deficit on campus had been confronted with a judgement debt of GH¢500 million.

He explained that, “In 2007 the university decided to set up an enterprise called University of Ghana Enterprise Limited (UGEL) which was to function as a private enterprise to procure funds from the market and construct more hostels. UGEL was intended to operate on a commercial basis as a private commercial company.”

The move he noted was disallowed following the intervention of the government of Ghana in November 2011 who promised to service the loan that was procured for the building, adding that, “The promise was not fulfilled and the university was confronted with a judgement debt of more than GH¢500 million.”

This he indicated had affected the university’s capacity to undertake any further investment in construction adding that “the UGEL board had been reconstituted to resume its original business status to operate at a commercial level as the private hostels”. 

The situation, Prof Owusu noted had for some time now decoupled admission from accommodation as the total housing stock in the traditional halls was able to deliver a total of 7,000 bed spaces, which could only cater for 25 per cent of students admitted.

To address the deficit, the V-C called on the government, stakeholders and management of the university to develop ways to ameliorate the problem.

He announced that the university was in the process of signing an agreement with the old vandals association and its partners KPMM Civils Limited to deliver a-4,000 bed state- of- the-art annexes for the Commonwealth Hall.

Congratulating the students, Prof Owusu charged the matriculants to be circumspect in exercising their personal freedom and urged them to make use of the opportunity offered.

Reciting the matriculation oath, the students pledged “to cheerfully and faithfully obey all written rules and regulations passed by the institution and be loyal to the university”.

BY ALLIA NOSHIE