Private Universities Founders Association, Ghana (PUFA- Ghana) on Wednesday elected a five-member executive council to, among other things, enable them to have a common voice in projecting their interest on critical issues in education.
The members included Rev. Dr Paul Kofi Fynn (Wisconsin International University College, Ghana) President; Rev. Prof. Kingsley Larbi (Regent University College) Vice President; Dr Ernest Ansah (Data Link Institute of Business & Technology) Secretary.
Others were Mrs Joyce Ababio (JACCD Design Institute), Treasurer and Prof. Afua Hesse (Accra College of Medicine) Elected Executive Member.
According to Dr Fynn, private institutions faced a myriad of challenges, hence there was a need to form an association to tackle them.
“It is unfortunate that since the establishment of private universities in the country no association has been formed to address the issues and challenges of the institutions, nothing holds all private universities together to improve and deliberate rising issues in the institutions,” he said.
He added that “the association would serve as a mouthpiece and offer a united front to enable them to influence the formulation and implementation of government policies on tertiary institutions”.
Dr Fynn added that the association would also list the issues private universities were facing, and present them to the government and other relevant stakeholders to be addressed.
He said that during their two-year tenure of office, they would work together to achieve the consolidation and advancement of Private Universities, Colleges, and analogous tertiary institutions in Ghana.
“Government is not doing much to support the private universities, comparing to other countries, private universities are given subsidy in running the institution but our country rather takes what the private universities gain in terms of taxes, heavy duties paid at the sea port before books and other things from outside gets into the country,” he said.
Dr Fynn, therefore, appealed to the government to support and advance the interest of private universities and colleges in Ghana.
“Sometimes people think private universities make so much money but it is not so, we have our problems and issues that rather outweigh us,” he stated.
The association, comprises the owners, founders and chancellors of private universities, and aims at positively influencing and shaping policies concerning private universities in Ghana.
BY ANITA ANKRAH
