[ 2016-11-21 ]

University of Ghana makes progress in reducing gender gap
The University of Ghana (UG) has made significant
progress in reducing the gap in access to higher
education between the genders.

Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, the Vice
Chancellor of the University, said at the
beginning of the 2016/2017 Academic Year, for the
main campus, Accra City Campus, Korle-Bu Campus
and the Distance Education programmes, the
University offered admission to a total of 24,312
applicants comprising 20,621 undergraduate
students and 3,691 graduate students.

He said at the Undergraduate Level, 3,841 or 50.47
per cent of the registered students were males
while 3,770 or 49.53 per cent were females.

At the Graduate Level, 1,702 or 57.89 per cent of
the registered students were males, while 1,238 or
42.11 per cent were females.

"We are therefore close to achieving the national
objective of 50:50 male - female ratio in tertiary
admissions," Prof Owusu stated in his report to
the November Congregation of the UG.

This congregation covers the second batch of
students, who completed their programmes of study
in the 2015/2016 Academic Year. The first batch
graduated in July this year.

"Further admissions will be made during the course
of the year for Special programmes and Sandwich
programmes," he explained.

He said the University continued to increase
access through its policy of offering the
opportunity of university education to applicants
from Less Endowed Schools and applicants with
disability.

"The admission of sports men and sports women
through the UG Policy for the Admission of Athlete
Students (PAAS) Policy is also in its third year
and is already bearing fruit,” he said.

"In June-July 2016, Team UG participated and
performed excellently at the Federation of African
Universities Sports (FASU) Games in South Africa,"
he said.

He said the team competed in five out of the nine
disciplines and won four gold medals, seven silver
medals and five bronze medals to place seventh out
of 35 universities.

"We are extremely proud of Desmond Aryee, who was
ranked the fourth best performer in athletics by
the competition organisers, after running an
impressive personal best 10.40 seconds to take the
Men’s 100 metres final in the track and field
championships.

"It has been reported that more than half of the
medals were won by athletes we admitted through
the UG-PAAS.

"There is, therefore, no doubt that our strategy
to use this means to enhance our performance at
various national and international events is
working and we need to continue firming up these
achievements by investing in our sporting
infrastructure."

"At Legon, we place high premium on the
cross-cultural experiences that is made possible
by the presence of international students on our
campuses,” he said.

"We are happy to report that for this academic
year, 761 undergraduate and 229 graduate
international students of various nationalities
were admitted into our programmes."

He said in the 2010-2011 Academic Year, the
University introduced a new-four year degree
progamme and revised several existing ones.

Prof Owusu said the grading system was also
overhauled and the thresholds raised with the aim
of improving the quality of graduates from the
University.

"We are in the seventh academic year since the
implementation of this restructured degree
programme and today’s graduating undergraduate
class is part of the fourth cohort of students
under the revised programme," Prof Owusu said.

He said the University would review the programme
and provide recommendations to make our graduates
and programmes more relevant to national
development.

This academic year also saw the offer of new
programmes, including the re-introduction of the
Bachelor of Arts in Administration programme in
the College of Humanities to offer students the
opportunity to combine business related subjects
with other subjects in the Humanities.

He said the College of Education had also rolled
out new programmes; "These are the Bachelor of
Arts in Education and Bachelor of Science in
Education to offer more choices to our
undergraduate students".

He urged the graduating students to understand
that education was expected to continue beyond the
walls of the lecture hall into the community and
work place and into adulthood.

"As you enter the job market, I urge you to
continue to improve upon these critical skills.
Remember that it is a competitive world and to be
in the lead, you need to always strive to make a
difference; just a one degree shift from the norm
and you will be in the lead," Prof Owusu advised.

Source - GNA

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