Vice Chancellors in Ghana are threatening to cut down on students intake if government does not allow them to replace and recruit staff.

According to the Vice Chancellors, a government embargo against staff recruitment is putting undue pressure on the few faculty members.

Speaking to Starr News’ Ibrahim Alhassan, the Executive Secretary of the Vice Chancellors Ghana, Peter Kaba, said the development is hampering the smooth running of the country’s public universities.

“It is seriously impacting on the activities of the university because the universities cannot move forward. We cannot generate, oil and gas is coming they need to generate this. Society is dynamic and universities must move to meet the dynamism of society but we cannot,” Kaba said.

“Even there is a PHD that came from Canada in Aerospace Engineering for University of Science and Technology. They put him on waiting for approval, the approval never came he’s gone back to Canada. You finish Aerospace Engineering today, Airbus is picking you as an employee. Is that not industry based?” he retorted.

Kaba added the universities will have to cut down on the number of students if the situation is not addressed.

“The end result of this whole thing is, the universities might be forced to cut down on student numbers, might be forced to cut down on students numbers because we cannot put more pressure on the few faculties,” he warned.

“They will die. Look at marking 800 or 1000 scripts, 1100 scripts, he is also a human being he will go off and we do not want to put much more pressure on them. Every day they are reporting ill, pressure at the university hospital,” Kaba lamented.

According to the Vice Chancellors Ghana, the worst affected are the newly established University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho and the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani whose subventions have delayed for six months.