Central University (CU) has held her 20th convocation with a call on government to partner private tertiary institutions in the training of quality human resource for national development.
The ceremony, which was split over two days, had 1,108 students graduating from 31 programmes with the first day taking care of the Central Business School, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; the second day was for the School of Pharmacy, School of Architecture and Design, School of Engineering and Technology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the School of Graduate Studies.
In a keynote address at the Christ Temple, ICGC, Accra, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, observed that private tertiary education had capacity to expand in Ghana and therefore would be instrumental in achieving the government’s vision of achieving 30% increase in tertiary enrolment.
In helping to achieve even distribution of students across tertiary institutions in Ghana, the professor asked for a-fee-credit voucher system “which allowed qualified students to take their voucher to any institution that they so choose, rather than a situation in which those who do not get the programs they choose in the public institutions have to search for other programmes they may not want to do.”
He also urged government to fully commit to sponsoring private universities who ran programmes in environmental and other sciences in order for such institutions to make interventions in the communities they served.
Commenting on legal education and access issues in Ghana, Prof. Puplampu said, “the debate must relate to content and quality of service and attention to underserved regions of the country, more towards a clean examination and licensing structure that allows all who aspire to legal education to do so and become competent barristers and solicitors.”
He asked the nation “to remove the narrative which suggested that it was an afront to the learned profession to have many people entering. Indeed, Ghana needs more, not fewer lawyers; Ghana needs more competent, able, good lawyers.”
In enumerating the achievements made by CU, the professor told of the sighing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Gordon College, USA, which would allow students from CU to do two years in Ghana and two years with Gordon college.
He also informed of the commencement of phase one of the university clinic project which would give CU medical students hands on training on campus and serve the Miotso community.
Professor Puplampu indicated that CU had received accreditation to mount a number of programs which included an-18-month MBA in Agribusiness and marketing which would phase out the 24-month MBA programmes.
Other programmes included BSc Agriculture Economics, BA Divinity, BSc Environmental Engineering, MPhil Economics, Postgraduate Diploma in Education, and a law program at the Kumasi campus.
Prof. Puplampu charged the graduating class to “use the same spirit of fortitude you faced the program with at whatever life throws at you. Let patience, commitment, ethical values of your profession guide you; take your profession as a means by which you demonstrate God’s grace and mercies to your communities.”
He also asked them to be patient in all their endeavours, adapt ethical considerations in their work and be God fearing which was a recipe for development.
Out of the 1,108 graduating students, 70 had first class with 411 going home with second class upper whilst 314 had second class lower. 136 had Third Class with 36 obtaining passes. 136 were from the graduate school.
The Overall Best female graduating student was Deka Diana who majored in Business Administration, Accounting option with the Overall Best student being Appiah-Kubi Kwadwo Brako who majored in Theology.
CU was established in 1988 with the aim of training transformational leaders for the nation. It has established itself as a faith-based Christian private tertiary institution with emphasis on developing leaders who possessed sound moral and ethical standards.
Source: GNA