University Of Cape Coast Admits 5,354 Students

The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has admitted a total number of 5,354 students to pursue both undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in various disciplines through the sandwich mode.

The figure comprises 2,881 post-graduate students and 2,273 undergraduate students with a gender statistics as 2,908 males and 2,446 females.

Professor D.D. Kuupole, Vice Chancellor of UCC, gave the figure at a matriculation ceremony on Friday for fresh students admitted into the University for the sandwich period.

He explained that the university had kept faith with its mission of responding to the changing needs of society and also continues to provide access to higher education through the sandwich mode.

He indicated that the programme was tailored towards workers whose work schedules or whose domestic responsibilities would not permit them to enrol during the regular session to pursue programmes of their choice.

“It is also to make the University maximise fully the very little essential facilities at her disposal and to make sure that those who enrol on the programme retain their positions at their work places while pursuing further studies,” he said.

He stated the University’s commitment not to compromise on quality and urged the students to devote some quality time for their studies.

Prof Kuupole further said that the University had adequate facilities that would enable them to go through their programmes of study successfully.

On security, he said the security situation on campus was relatively safe for academic work, saying, “The campus security and the police frequently conduct patrols on campus and in the surrounding communities in order to ward off any people with bad intentions”.

Security devices such as CCTV cameras, he said, had been placed at some vantage points of the University to monitor and check the activities of such people.

He, however, urged the students to be security conscious about their movements on campus and also devote time for their studies.

Source: Ghanaian Times

UCC intensifies security on campus

The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has installed Closed Circuit Television cameras at vantage points on campus to monitor and check criminal activities as part of measures to ensure maximum security. 

Professor Domwini D. Kuupole, Vice Chancellor who made this known at the weekend said security on campus is relatively safe for academic work, but the open-door nature of the academic facility leads to security breaches. 

“There have been instances where people’s mobile phones, laptops and handbags have been snatched from them by criminal elements who mingle with students,” he stated.

 Prof Kuupole was speaking at a matriculation ceremony to formally admit a total of 5,354 fresh students to pursue various undergraduate and post-graduate Sandwich Programmes for the 2015/2016 academic year in Cape Coast.

 In addition, the campus security and the police would continue to conduct patrols to ward off any person with bad intentions, the Vice Chancellor said.

He advised students to observe personal safety precautions. 

“Be extra careful and alert to these miscreants who may willingly offer their unsolicited services”, he said. 

The matriculants comprised 2,881 post graduate students and 2,473 undergraduate students who would pursue programmes at the College of Education Studies, College of Human and Legal Studies, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences and Colleges of Health and Allied Sciences. 

Of the number, 2,908 representing 54.3 per cent are males as against 2,446 females representing 45.7 per cent.

Prof Kuupole said the university is committed to its core values and advised the students to strictly adhere to rules and regulations in the students’ Handbook, and pay attention to academic work.

Source: GNA

Colleges Of Education Must Constantly Upgrade Curricula

Dr Ato Essuman, a former Chief Director of the Ghana Education Service, has called for innovative pathways and re-conceptualisation of the training of teachers to better serve the state’s needs.

He said teachers had to investigate the pedagogical issues and critically utilise evidence-based-knowledge to inform their professional practice, and also accept the involvement of education stakeholders to ensure that educational reforms and efforts remained pertinent to society.

Dr Essuman said this at the weekend during the graduation ceremony of the Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) College of Education in Cape Coast.

He explained that teacher quality was critical in preparing students for a society undergoing far-reaching economic and social changes.

Consequently, he said colleges of education had to move beyond the traditional requirement of academic performance and results on standardized testing, to include other relevant personal and experiential characteristics, and encourage the entry of non- traditional pool of applicants.

Dr Essuman said to support the needs of a diversifying student population, colleges of education should broaden their entry requirements to diversify the teaching corps and better represent minority ethno-cultural groups.

They should also support students who use different languages from the language of instruction or who come from a low socio-economic background to give of their best.

The ceremony, under the theme: “Transforming Teacher Education for Better Service to the Nation”, was attended by a large gathering, including chiefs, queen mothers, heads of colleges of education, and the Chairman of the OLA College Governing Council, the Most Reverend Mathias Kobina Nketsia.

In all, 275 students were awarded Diplomas in Science, Mathematics, and Early Childhood Education.

Six graduated with First Class Honours, 117 were in the Second Class Upper Division, 123 in the Second Class Lower Division, while 28 had Third Class certificates.


Source: GNA

UCC Certificates Not For Sale

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Prof D.D Kuupole, says the university’s certificates are not for sale.

He has, therefore, warned unscrupulous persons colluding to forge UCC certificates for sale to unemployed persons to desist from the practice and advised employers both locally and abroad to do due diligence to seek the authenticity of these certificates before employing prospective applicants.

Prof. Kuupole was speaking at the sixth session of the 47th congregation of the Institute of Education and College of Distance Education (CODE) of the university, over the weekend.

It was a three-day session during which 10,080 graduates comprising 2,372 from the Institute of Education Studies and 7,708 from the CODE graduated.

He explained that the high demand for UCC graduates had caused some unscrupulous persons to continuously forge the certificates for prospective applicants seeking employment.

He said the university was also working to ensure the sanctity of its certificates, pointing out that, “The issue is a problem both in the country and abroad”.

He said it was obvious that there had been a significant increase in the number of students who successfully completed their programme of study.

Prof. Kuupole said the drop-out rate of students of the CODE had also gone down considerably while the general academic performance had improved considerably.

Distance Education

Prof. Kuupole said distance education had helped to increase, significantly, access to higher education.

He, however, advised beneficiaries of the distance education programme to help change the fortunes of particularly, the education sector, and all other sectors in the country where they found themselves, and not only use their certificates to secure higher salaries.

He stated that higher education for teachers in particular, must reflect in a remarkably improved performance in the nation’s educational standards, pointing out that in pursuit of integrating Information, Communications Technology (ICT) in distance learning in the university, the CODE had completed an e-learning platform for use for teaching and learning.

With the full activation of the platform, he said, students could hopefully register, pay fees and access their academic records online.

However, he said, there still remained the poor ICT infrastructure at the regional centres, pointing out that those challenges were being adequately addressed.

CODE Expansion

On expansion programmes, he stated that UCC through the CODE opened 12 new centres across the country.

He said the sod had also been cut for the construction of two three-storey learning centres in Wa in the Upper West Regionand Zuarungu in the Upper East Region this year.

He advised the graduands to work hard and be honest in all they do to impact positively on the lives of the people in their communities.

Sir Sam Jonah

In his address, Sir Sam Jonah, Chancellor of the university, noted that distance education was a sure way to acquire higher education and advised the graduands to make the best of the education they had acquired.

At an earlier session, the Minister of Education, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, in a speech read on her behalf, commended UCC for its efforts at digitise its teaching and learning.

Nana Sam Brew Butler, Chairman of the Governing Council of the university also urged the graduates to give back to help develop the university.


Source: Daily Graphic

UCC completes e-learning platform

The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has completed an e-learning platform for the College of Distance Education (CoDE), as part of efforts to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in distance learning.

With the full activation of the platform, it is expected that student registration, payment of fees, academic records and detailed results, will be easily accessible online to students of the distance programme of the university.

Prof. Domwini D. Kuupole, Vice Chancellor of UCC, announced this at the sixth session of the 47th Congregation of UCC held on Thursday, to graduate 4,008 students who completed various programmes of study at the Institute of Education and CoDE for the 2013/14 academic year.

The students were awarded Degrees and Diplomas in Basic Education, Psychology, and Foundational Studies.

Prof. Kuupole noted that the UCC was in talks with regional directors of education and other stakeholders, to smoothly integrate the graduates into the sector, and other deficient sectors, in efforts to make the distance education programme more relevant in the educational sector.

He, therefore, charged the graduands to be committed, and work hard to contribute their quota to the improvement of the educational sector.

Nana Brew Butler, Chairman of the UCC Council, advised the graduands not to be content with the Degrees and Diplomas awarded them, but rather climb higher the academic ladder.

In his valedictory address, the overall best graduand, Mr. Bernard Gyimah Antwi, admonished his colleagues to exhibit a high sense of excellence and quality in all their endeavours.

Source: GNA

UCC builds satellite campus in Upper East

Zuarungu (UE), May 15, GNA - The University of Cape Coast (UCC) has initiated a building project in the Upper East Region to serve as one of its satellite campuses.

The three-storey multipurpose building project located at Zuarungu near the Bolgatanga Municipality, when completed next year, would have lecture halls for both undergraduate and post-graduate students, with facilities such ICT, furnished library, Laboratories, toilet facilities, and lift, among others.

Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony at Zuarungu, the Vice Chancellor of the University. Professor D.D. Kuupole, said the project was being funded from the University's Internally Generated Funds.

He said it was part of the University’s efforts at complementing governments to provide accessible, quality tertiary education, and expressed the hope that it would break the cycle of poverty and help accelerate the area's development.

The Vice Chancellor stated that one of the reasons that informed the University to establish the campus was not only to make education accessible to the people alone, to cut down the hectic time students went through by traveling for long distances in search of tertiary education which of often resulted in some losing their lives through accidents.

He commended the chiefs and people of Zuarungu for releasing such a vast land for the project, and Professor Emmanuel Abole, a lecturer of the University who is an indigene, for playing an instrumental role in the establishment of the project.

The Provost in charge of the College of Distance Education, Professor George Oduro, who kicked against the idea of Government winning Tertiary institutions from its subvention, stated that the decision was not necessary since most of the tertiary educational institutions were already doing a lot, and cited the number of Satellite Campuses the University had built, as examples.

The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Daniel Syme, was full of praise to the Management of the University, and said it would play a major role in reducing poverty among people in the area, as well as bring a lot of development to the region.

The Deputy Minister entreated students from the region to take advantage of the facility, and said it would also help attract students from neighbouring countries, like Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger and Mali, which was closer to the Region.

The chiefs and people of Zuarungu expressed happiness about the project, and pledged to co-operate with the contractor to complete the project on time.

They announced that they had secured and mapped another area that could be used for a similar purpose, and invited other tertiary institutions which would want to widen their scope into the region, not to hesitate to contact them.


Source: Ghana News Agency

Public Universities Milk Applicants Dry

Public universities have sworn to make up for the decline in government subvention, and these days anything goes -- including charging exorbitantly for on-line application scratch-cards when most of the applicants do not even get admitted.

Today most of the applications are either done directly on-line or applicants are asked to download and print application forms at their own cost.

This notwithstanding, the cost of applying to universities in the country, including public ones, has been increasing at a rate that has alarmed many applicants and their families; particularly those with low incomes.

Many people wonder what is peculiar about Ghanaian universities that they have to charge so much as application fees, when most universities globally do not charge a dime for applications.

Ghanaian universities are yet to muster the courage to stop charging application fees even as they have moved away from selling application forms to on-line application platforms.

Currently, scratch-cards to apply on-line for undergraduate programmes at the various public universities go for close to GH¢200 for most of the public universities.

Considering that a good number of applicants apply to a number of universities at the same time, the cost becomes even higher.

“I applied to three universities -- that is KNUST, Legon and UPSA -- and my brother paid almost GH¢600 for that,” said nineteen-year-old Gideon Amartey who is anxiously waiting to go to university. “If I had the money, I would have applied to two others,”he said.

“The transition of application forms from manual to electronic should have lessened the cost, I do not see why it is rather so expensive these days, said Reeves Rhommenze Romeo, a student of one of the universities.

“If the form was hard-copy it is quite understandable (even that should not be expensive, honestly), but it’s electronic now and the price is even higher than when it was manual. I still don't understand; maybe there is a reason for that but for now I don't understand why the fee goes up when it is electronic,” he said.

According to NUGS’ representative on the National Youth Authority, Prince David Orchill, the situation may even compel some potential university goers to settle for the security agencies since they do not have to pay much there.

“We are not very happy with the increasing cost of these scratch-cards. It is not fair. Now they have made the cards so expensive that students spend all their money on registration formalities and are left with no money to pay their fees after they get admitted,” he said.

The universities have argued that in view of dwindling government subvention, they are having to rely on internally generated funds to keep them going.

In its Strategic Plan, spanning the years 2014 to 2024, the University of Ghana says, for example, that its funding sources have changed “significantly” in the last decade since government support has dropped from being more than 90% of its budget to just over 55%.

“The significance of internally generated funds, relying extensively on fees from students, will grow,” it said.


Source: Business & Financial Times

Public universities owe GH¢30 million in utility bills

Public universities in the country owe over 30 million Ghana Cedis in utility bills.

The University of Ghana owes GH¢14,936, 868 in electricity and GH¢2,585,232 in water bills. The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology owes GH¢9,368,487 in electricity and GH¢1,842,687 in water bills.

The University of Mines and Technology owes GH¢553,047 in electricity bills and GH¢160,456 in water bills, the university of education Winneba owes GH¢3,414,287 and GH¢1,300,604 while the University of Energy and Natural Resources owes GH¢880,135 in electricity and GH¢200,471 in water.

The figures did not include that of the University of Cape Coast, the University of Development Studies and the University of Health and Allied Science and the University of Professional Studies, Accra.

The figure does not include bills of other tertiary institutions and the senior high schools.

Speaking at a public lecture at the University of Cape Coast Wednesday, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper said government was ready to disclose the true state of the nation to Ghanaians.

He was speaking on the topic “Challenges and Experiences of Managing the Economy of Ghana.”

Mr Seth Terpker, an alumnus of UCC suggested more efficient ways of using utilities, reiterating the need for the adoption of pre-paid electricity meters for use on the campuses.

He said there was the need to be more efficient and to check illegal use of electricity and also consider moving from the use of conventional electricity to biogas and solar.

He noted that “if we do not make these corrections, we would continue to have a legacy of subsidies which has often brought the nation to its knees.”

He indicated that though government was obliged to pay, the dispute was whether or not government could continue to pay the huge cost. He failed to comment on whether or not students would eventually be required to pay for utilities.

Mr Terpker further called for a concerted effort to put in a lot of gas infrastructure to augment electricity supply.

He said the World Bank had confirmed that Ghana’s growth was going to increase significantly in 2017 saying those gains must be consolidated.

He said despite the up and down swing and the challenges facing the country’s economy it was important to note that the country had made positive economic growth in the last 30 years.


- By Shirley Asiedu Addo, Graphic.com.gh

African Universities urged to adopt ‘tripartite mission concept’

Cape Coast, May 1, GNA - Emeritus Professor Pai Obanya of the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, has said for African Universities to achieve academic excellence to meet global demand, they must adopt the ‘tripartite mission concept.’

He said academic excellence tripod could be achieved through the emerging paradigm of the triple mission of knowledge; knowledge generation, knowledge transmission and knowledge sharing.

Speaking at a public lecture at the University of Cape Coast on the theme: “Exploring the Academic Excellence Tripod,” Prof. Obanya tasked African universities to also develop both implicit and explicit curricula for a wider array of possibilities to effect total knowledge in teaching and learning.

The lecture organised by the College of Education Studies was attended by students and a cross-section of the academia.

The Emeritus Professor said institutions of higher learning needed to entrench academic excellence through multi-dimensional approach; based on systematic, continuous and career-long education.

The Tripartite Mission of Universities was a concept that sought to clarify what African universities should exist for, and the development-oriented tasks they must pursue, as they struggled to fit into the global league of fountains of knowledge, while at the same time being service-intensive to their local environment.

Looking critically at the mission of tertiary education in this contemporary time, Prof Obanya, who is the immediate past Chairman of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), said universities must incorporate this strategy to enhance their relevance, and produce high-level manpower that could not solve societal challenges.

The ace academician, known as the ‘Grand Sage of Education in Africa,’ further implored the universities to use the consummate researcher functions in a participatory manner, involving the researcher and the researched to address the needs of society.

Prof Obanya opined that universities had been employing individualistic research methodologies, especially in asking students to select research topics on their own without recourse to societal needs.

In his view, this was wrong because according to him, the universities must use strategic institutional agenda to engage and research into the immediate needs of the communities in which they were located and the society at large.

He bemoaned that in our part of the world people equated total learning to success in examination, saying “learning goes beyond mere success in examination.”

“Successful learning is a lot more than exam success, and this involves incorporating life-long and life-wide skills to ensure total learning,” he observed.

Professor Obanya said Africans, though observed culture that much, it should not be a barrier to new learning and thinking outside the box.

Culture, he indicated, was dynamic, and urged both teachers and students to endeavor to break certain cultural and traditional myths to improve research procedures.

He called for creativity among the university fraternity through what he called 'transformational pedagogy’ for effective teaching and learning.

This, Professor Obanya said, must involve the application of both physical and mental activities to improve interest in continuous learning, adding that “For learning to be effective, teachers must employ activity-based methods.”

One critical area that teachers needed to address further was the psycho-social needs of students, and not consider them as mere statistics.

According to him, students had so many personal and social problems which sometimes took their conscience off their academic work, and therefore urged teachers to have the interest of students at heart to help promote effective teaching and learning.

Prof Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, Acting Provost of the College of Education Studies of the University of Cape Coast, who chaired the function, was full of praise for the guest speaker, and urged him to constantly visit the university to share his vast educational expertise with Ghana.

He challenged both teachers and students to imbibe and inculcate the triple mission of knowledge in their academic pursuit, to influence society positively.


Source: Ghana News Agency

Africa needs intellectual independence - Professor Olufemi Bamiro

Cape Coast, April 30, GNA - Professor Olufemi Bamiro, Pro-chancellor and Chairman of Council at Tai Solarian University of Education, Nigeria, says Africa need to be intellectually independent to be able to address its numerous challenges.

He said it is time African universities become proactive, well-researched and community services oriented while maintaining core African values to gain a more respectable position in the academic world.

Prof Bamiro said though education had its roots in Africa, Africans are always relying on the Western world to find solutions and answers to problems which are purely African.

“Almost all the big universities in the world now, the people behind them are all Africans or are of African origin, so why must we always run to the West to have our issues solved while our problems are African? It is time we become intellectually independent to be able to find African solutions to the African problems,” he said.

Prof Bamiro was speaking at the opening ceremony of the first interdisciplinary conference organized by the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration in collaboration with Ghana Association of Educational Planners and Administrators and Tai Solarian University of Education, Nigeria, at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The four-day conference which is on the theme: “Education as a tool for global development,” is aimed at having an in-depth discussion and of exchange ideas as the participants seek answers from the research perspective.

Prof Bamiro said there is the need to ensure that lecturers are adequately resourced with research logistics and scientific materials since staff quality is a major driver of the change.

He said the polytechnics and the technical universities must be strengthened to produce competent human resource to ensure the sustainability of African industries, adding that sustainable development of industries is a key indicator to modern development.

He said the brain-drain from Africa is major setbacks to development as majority of African graduates who are expected to use the knowledge acquire to help their countries, travel outside for greener pastures.

The Vice Chancellor of UCC, Prof Domwini Kuupole said the conference is as a result of the memorandum of understanding between UCC and the Tai Solarian University of Education in Nigeria to engage in activities that is mutually beneficial.

He said it is a clear demonstration of regional cooperation and expressed the hope that the scholarly discourse would inform the decisions of educational administrators in the sub region.


Source: Ghana News Agency

45,000 extra teachers needed to effect universal basic education - Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah

About 45,000 extra teachers are needed to provide universal basic education in the country, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, has said.


He was addressing the first annual Easter Forum on the theme: “Distance Education: Our hope for sustainable human capacity development in Ghana”, at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) yesterday.

Currently, he said, there were 260,000 basic school teachers, half of which were untrained.

Statistics show that most untrained teachers are found at the kindergarten and the primary levels, where 72.4 per cent of the 42,128 teachers have no training.

At the primary level, this falls to 50.5 per cent of 126,596 teachers, and drops again to 37 per cent of the 90,687 teachers at the junior high school level.

Prof Anamuah-Mensah said basic education in the country faced a serious problem, with about 800,000 children of school age currently out of school.


Tertiary education

At the tertiary level of education, he said, traditional approaches to learning were inadequate to overcome the challenge and, therefore, advocated distance education as a panacea to propel access to education.

“The key to rectifying the teacher shortfall in Ghana, though, is not through conventional teacher training but rather the rise of distance education, which has and will continue to be critical because the demand for teachers is so huge,” he said.


Lack of co-ordination

Prof Anamuah-Mensah, however, bemoaned the un-coordinated nature of distance education in the country, noting that more than 10 years after distance education was introduced, it was yet to be properly co-ordinated.

The Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Prof. D.D. Kuupole, stressed the urgent need for collaboration among tertiary institutions to provide quality education, adding, “We need to have a guiding principle on where we are going.”

“So many of us have been left out; we need to strategise and bring everybody on board,” he stressed.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Major Albert Don-Chebe (retd), said only about 68,000 people procured university degrees in Ghana a year, saying that was woefully inadequate for human resource development in the country.

He pledged the corporation’s commitment to partner the UCC to provide quality education for Ghanaians.


Source: Timothy Gobah, graphic.com.gh

Tertiary education should not be elitist - Professor Josephus Anamuah-Mensah

Cape Coast, April 30, GNA - Professor Josephus Anamuah-Mensah, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, says the efforts to raise Ghana unto a higher middle income status would be unrealistic if access to tertiary education remains elitist.

He said currently access to tertiary education as measured by the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 12 per cent which means that a large number of talents lie dormant and uncultivated to contribute to the country’s prosperity.

He said there is the need to increase the existing percentage to about 30 per cent to be able to move the nation beyond the lower middle-income status.

“There is a higher education demand surge but many Ghanaians are deprived of tertiary education, only 12 per cent of post-secondary school graduates get access to the university. We are struggling to move beyond the lower middle-income but the figure is too low for a higher middle-income status,” he said.

Prof Anamuah-Mensah said this when he delivered the keynote address at the maiden annual Easter forum organised by the College of Distance Education (CoDE) of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The forum, which was on the theme: “Distance education: Our hope for a sustained human capacity development in Ghana,” was aimed at addressing the issues concerning distance education.

He said the role of higher education especially for African countries cannot be taken lightly and urged Ghanaians not to view tertiary education as something for the elites alone.

Distance education is the best alternative to addressing the problem of limited access to tertiary education as it offers the working populace the opportunity to improve upon their knowledge in the work place, Prof Anamuah-Mensah said.

He said with 49.3 per cent of the total number of teachers at the basic school level being untrained, distance education would obviously be the recommended option for them if they want to go to school while they remain in the classrooms.

The former Vice-Chancellor urged the organisers of distance education programmes to put in place employable skills courses that are work-based and expand its scope to introduce technical and vocational programmes.

Professor D. D Kuupole, Vice Chancellor of UCC, said distance education since its inception in 1994, has become embedded in the country’s educational sector and called on all to embrace it.

He said distance education makes higher education flexible and offer a larger number of people the opportunity to enrol in any programme.

He said the discussions, sharing of ideas and innovations that may come up during the forum would go a long way to make advancement in the distance learning programs.

Heads of training colleges, education administrators, teachers, university dons and the Director of CoDE, Prof, George Oduro were present at the one-day forum.



Source: Ghana News Agency