Support Private Universities – PUSAG

The Private Universities Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG), has urged government to provide measures to ensure the sustainability of Private Universities in the country.

According to the Association, this would enable private universities grow and admit more students who do not gain admission in the public universities.

Addressing the media on Wednesday in Accra, Shaibu Dawud, the President of PUSAG, said majority of the students benefiting from governments flagship policy, free Senior High School (SHS), would not gain admission into the universities if government refuses to pay attention to the Private Universities.

“Government is so keen in making sure that every child in Ghana is educated and so it has introduced the free SHS. What becomes of these students when they graduate? Because the Public universities are not able to admit all of them. Steps must be taken to make sure private universities are well taken care of,” he noted.

Fall in Student Enrollment

Mr. Shaibu Dawud disclosed that Private Universities over the last three years has fallen short of the required numbers of students in terms of admissions and as such some are running out of business.

He further expressed displeasure over government’s decision not to admit students with grade D7, who intend to enroll in colleges of education across the country.

His comment comes after the Deputy Minister of education in charge of pre-Tertiary Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, disclosed that colleges of education across the country will no more accept grade D7 as a cut-off point to admit students in the 2019/2020 academic year.

According to Shaibu Dawud , the country would end up losing most of her high school graduates on the streets as most do have  D7 in any of the core subjects or elective ones.

“The government as we are made to understand wants to create strong partnership with the private sector to develop and grow the economy, but we ask, in which countries do we grow economies with killer policies that will keep institutions out of operations,” he mentioned.

He further called on government to immediately amend the Act that establishes Private Universities in order to do away with needless affiliations with the Public Universities.

By: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum