The Chairman of the Governing Council, Anglican University College of Technology (ANGUTEC), Dr Daniel Owiredu, has said that public universities strategy to offer programmes through distance education, weekend and sandwich modules, threatens the survival of private universities.
According to him, potential students who could not pursue the various courses via the mainstream hours in public universities because of their busy schedules, resorted to private institutions who run programmes aside the normal contact hours.
He noted that most of the students pursuing sandwich and distance education courses in private universities have stopped following the introduction of same modules of offering programmes by public universities.
Dr Owiredu who was delivering an address at the third graduation ceremony of ANGUTEC on Saturday at Nkoranza, in the Bono East region, stressed that the situation had negatively affected enrollment, finance, campus activities and planning in private universities.
Out of a total of 95 graduating students of the university college, 22 had first class, 56 had second class upper, 13 got second class lower and four registered third class honours from their respective courses.
ANGUTEC currently has a student population of 531 and runs three academic programmes namely Bachelor (BSc) Physician Assistantship, BSc Nursing and BSc Business Administration, with two campuses at Nkoranza and Kumasi.
The Council chairman indicated that private universities in the country depended mostly on school fees to pay salaries, bills and other financial obligations adding “this limits our ability to develop more infrastructure.”
He expressed worry about the college’s uneasiness to meet the requirement of Ghana Tertiary Education Council (GTEC) to employ more terminal degree holders, due to financial difficulties stressing that we depended heavily on part – time lecturers.
Dr Owiredu appealed to government to extend the annual subventions and infrastructure support for public universities to private ones assuring “this will cushion us to expand our facilities in order to admit more potential students.”
The Council chairman eulogised the graduating students for their hard work, dedication, perseverance and several sacrifices to achieve excellence, thereby making them the architects of their destiny.
“The world is waiting for you to make a difference. You have been equipped with the tools, skills and knowledge to make a significant contribution to shape society. Inspire change and make a better future,” he said.
Dr Owiredu advised the graduand to prepare their minds to face challenges in life including failures, setbacks, obstacles and disappointments with courage, resilience and determination noting that these are experiences to make you grow.
FROM EMMANUEL ADU GYAMFI, NKORANZA
