Educationist calls for Government, industry support to Private Universities

Professor Albert Ayikwei Addo-Quaye, Chairman, Council of Independent Universities (CIU), says Private Universities need the support of government and industry to deliver quality higher education for growth and development.

He said there was the need for partnerships between the government, faith-based organizations and entrepreneurs to ensure the survival of the Private Universities to foster the national development agenda.

Prof. Addo-Quaye made this known at the Maiden Anniversary Lecture in Commemoration of the Methodist University Ghana’s (MUG) autonomy status.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, Methodist University College Ghana (MUCG), now MUG, received Presidential Charter effective March 1, 2022 and became an autonomous institution capable of awarding its own degrees and certificates.

He said despite the growth in the number of Private Universities, the Sector had been confronted with many challenges including fee collection, lack of access to funds for infrastructure development and high cost of commercial loans to meet operating expenses.

“Others are high cost of utilities, high emoluments cost of credible faculty and

constant difficulty with budget deficits,” the Chairman said.

He said a funding arrangement should be made to enable Private Universities absorb a certain number of free Senior High School (SHs) students to receive the tuition funds.

“This will enable the Private Universities to charge only the top up tuition fee difference between what the State provides and what the Private Universities require,” Prof Addo-Quaye said.

He said with the free SHS system fully operationalised, the government must partner credible Private Universities to take up students that Public Universities could not admit rather than expanding Public Institutions.

“There is no need in pushing the University of Ghana, for instance, to expand facilities and increase its student population to 50,000 or 60,000 to absorb free-SHS students when two or three Private Universities can properly assist and admit a number of them,” he said.

Prof Addo-Quaye, who is the President, Kings University College, said more systematic approach should be concluded to enable Private Universities access GETFUND for infrastructure development.

He said many Private Universities had room for expansion and could bring on additional facilities in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) but had been constrained by high cost of capital expenditure.

The chairman also called on Faith-Based

Organisations (FBO) and entrepreneurs, who had established Private Universities to provide the needed infrastructure to ensure smooth operations of the Universities.

“Establish special funds for research and publications. This role is critical if the academic staff of Private Universities are to make any significant impact by solving problems in the communities and contribute to knowledge generation in their specific fields of study,” he said.

He said the FBOs and entrepreneurs must establish Endowment Funds for their higher education institutions to ensure availability of funds to support all aspects of operations of their institutions.