By Dennis Peprah
Fiapre, (B/R), Sept. 13, GNA – Management and Board of the Catholic University of Ghana (CUG) have expressed appreciation to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for approving the Charter, thereby making the institution autonomous.
With the Presidential Charter, CUG has now become an autonomous fully-fledged university to award its own degrees.
Professor Daniel Kwabena Obeng-Ofori, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University also thanked the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Tertiary Education Council (GTEC) for the rigorous assessment and favourable recommendations to the presidency.
Addressing a news conference at the University’s main campus at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality, the VC acknowledged the contributions of its mentoring institutions, the Catholic Bishops Conference for financial, material, and prayerful support, as well as staff and students for their loyalty and perseverance.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori indicated though private universities in the country were young, “but in this short period of time, their contribution to tertiary education has been enormous”, saying for the past 25 years, private universities had filed an important niche and helped address “what could have been a severe socio-economic-political problem”.
Currently, he said about 25 per cent of tertiary students in the country attend private universities and employ more than 4,000 staff.
With the Charter, Prof. Obeng-Ofori said the university would work hard to improve the condition of service of staff, upgrade its ICT infrastructure, to well integrate ICT into governance and administrative setup, establish university clinic and a police post.
“We will further strengthen internal moderation of examination questions, rehabilitate hostels, complete buildings along hostel lane, establish canteen for staff, and complete disability access”, he added.
Established on May 3, 2003, and officially inaugurated by former President John Agyekum Kufuor in November, the university started to experience low student enrolment from 2014/2015/2016 academic years due to ferocious academic competition from both public and private universities.
The CUG however came out with robust strategic plan including a six-year (2019-2024) Corporate Strategic Plan meant to address strategic imperatives that the university needs to focus attention on means to ensure not only, its survival, but its unique contribution and identity within the institutions of higher education in the country.
Currently, the CUG has seven faculties and schools, including faculty of economics and business administration, faculty of computing, mathematical and engineering sciences, faculty of education, school of nursing and midwifery, school of public health and allied sciences, faculty of religions and social sciences and school of graduate studies.
GNA