Western University College to become full University

Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State for Tertiary Education, on Thursday said the Western University College at Tarkwa, would be upgraded into a full University.

She said the institution could only attain autonomy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology through a legislation and a draft bill to that effect would be laid before Parliament for consideration.

Ms Ohene was speaking to the staff and students of the University College during a visit to the institution at Tarkwa.

Ms Ohene said the government was not considering cost sharing and cost recovery as the best options of funding education but was committed to finding sustainable ways of funding tertiary education.

Ms Ohene said about 70 per cent of qualified applicants were unable to gain admission into the country's universities and other tertiary institutions due to the lack of facilities.

She said instead of using the Ghana Education Trust Fund (Getfund) to provide more educational facilities, half of the amount had been channelled into the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSINT) Students' Loan Scheme.

Ms Ohene said less than four per cent of beneficiaries of the loan scheme had repaid their loan and that was affecting the SSINT pension scheme.

Professor Daniel Mireku-Gyimah, the Provost of the University College announced that, the educational institution would introduce a course in Computer Engineering next academic year and a course in Management and Information Technology in the year 2005.

He said 1.5 billion cedis had been released from the Getfund for the construction of a Library complex and a students' hostel at the University College.

Prof. Mireku-Gyimah said the University College was taking steps to mitigate the impact of mining activities on the environment in the area.

He said the institution was also researching into petroleum exploration and mining of industrial minerals such as silica, kaolin, salt and granite.