Govt to address challenges of UDS - President

Tamale, Dec. 16, GNA - Government is determined to ensure that the University for Development Studies (UDS) Medical School gets accreditation before 2009, President John Agyekum Kufuor has assured. He noted that the staffing situation of the of the Faculty of Medicine had improved from four as at the year 2000, when it was denied accreditation to 39 as at November this year.

President Kufuor said this in an address read for him by Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, at the eighth congregation of the UDS in Tamale on Saturday. He said the government was committed to assisting the younger public universities that were established during unfavourable economic times to deliver quality education.

Discussions for the bulk release of seed money for the UDS and the University of Mines and Technology were on going to find out how the infrastructural inadequacies of the two universities could be addressed without causing financial imbalances to the economy, he said. President Kufuor announced that contracts to refurbish the Tamale Regional Hospital into a Teaching Hospital were almost completed and urged the University Management to intensify its search for specialist clinicians in and around Tamale to support the clinical training of UDS medical students.

President Kufuor called on the Management of the UDS to take a cue from the recent revelations at the Public Accounts Committee hearings and learn to be prudent in financial transactions. "As a deprived university, I strongly urge a more judicious use of the little resources that come to the UDS", he said.
President Kufuor said it was government's hope that the grandaunts would be true disciples of the new thinking in development from the heart of Northern Ghana and stay committed to the catchments area of the university so that the development gap between the North and the South would be bridged.
Professor Kaku Sagary Nokoe, Acting Vice-Chancellor of UDS said the new educational reforms would put more pressure on the universities and other tertiary institutions and demanded that the funding levels of these institutions should be put to public debate. He urged government to revisit the issue of "reasonable" fees charged by public universities in place of reduced subvention, adding that the universities would in turn increase enrolment by 10 per cent to support fee paying applicants.
He said the university was also putting in place the necessary facilities to start and expand distance learning as a solution to the challenge of increasing numbers.
Professor Nokoe said due to the geographical spread of the UDS, distance learning would make a significant impact on the educational landscape of rural Ghana. The Vice-chancellor commended the government for establishing the Northern Development Fund (NDF) and suggested that parts of the Fund could be used to address issues of the environment and sustainable economic ventures.
Mr Daniel Charles Gyimah, Chairman of the University Council, expressed concern that the Third Trimester Field Practical Programme (TTFPP) of the University was in danger because of the recent floods that hit some parts of the Northern Region.
"The mandate to engage in field practical training has become an expensive venture for a University that is under-funded", he said. He commended the GETFund, which had complemented government's support in the construction of lecture halls, laboratories, ICT centres, hostels and libraries in all the campuses of the UDS. 16 Dec. 07