Accra, May 22, GNA - Mr Alex Tettey Enyo, Minister for Education said government was seriously considering a recent request by the Jayee University College to support private universities through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND).

Mr Tettey Enyo, who said this in a speech read for him at the 3rd congregation of Jayee University College in Accra, said government would take a firm decision on the matter after it has ironed out its modalities. The College, which is affiliated to the University of Education Winneba, awarded certificates to 126 students with five students obtaining first class honours in business and communication courses. He said Jayee must continue to play its role as one of the leading tertiary educational institutions in Ghana and beyond through capacity building of its human resource.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said the proliferation of private tertiary institutions presented a risk of compromising quality, but said "in our close talks with the National Accreditation Board, we are sure that the right thing will continue to be done."

Prof. Jophus Anamuah Mensah, Chairman of the Governing Council of the College, reiterated the appeal and said government must consider private institutions to enable them to participate in higher education and noted that 20 per cent of tertiary students were in private universities in Ghana. He said the fastest developing economies such as Malaysia, China and Singapore were using Open University Concept and Ghana could do the same to provide affordable and flexible higher education and skills development institution for the youth.

"We intend to increase our present number of eight hundred students to one thousand five hundred in the 2010/2011 academic year and hit the five thousand mark by 2013/2014," Prof. Anamuah Mensah said. He said a state-of-the-art facility near Weija was being constructed and that the present campus would be made Accra Campus to take care of the evening and weekend programmes.

Mr John Emmanuel Donkoh, President of the College said the school had embarked on some projects such as construction of Jayee West Campus, unveiling of a plague and launch of a newspaper in line with its five year strategic plan, which was launched last year. He said Jayee now integrates secretarialship with management and some marketing and public relations.

The one time girls' school now has a gender distribution of 63.4 per cent females and 34.6 per cent males. Mr Donkoh said since its accreditation in 2004, Jayee had been running two faculties- Business Administration and Communication Science, which offer mainly degree and diploma programmes. 2