Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor has lauded private universities for their immense contributions to the development of education in the country.
He said these universities offer opportunities to those who are unable to access public universities, but called for effective supervision by the National Accreditation Board so that students are not exploited by these universities.
He was speaking at the 6th Graduation ceremony of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT).
“Let me commend the tremendous contribution to education and national development that the nation’s private universities and tertiary educational institutions are offering.
They are fulfilling the very essential needs as the spaces at the nation’s public tertiary educational institutions are woefully inadequate to meet the requirement of a rapidly increasing student population. In this era of public-private partnership in socio-economic development, I believe that is the way to go.”
Meanwhile the President of the Accra Institute of Technology Professor Clement Dzidonu has called for a realignment of teaching in the various tertiary institutions to equip graduates with entrepreneurial skills as a way of addressing growing graduate unemployment.
“The question is what role can our university community play as key partners to government and industry in order to resolve the job situation? Our universities must embrace producing job creators and not only job seekers. A number of our public and private universities can put in place efforts and initiatives that can transform them into leading entrepreneurial universities and not just teaching and research university.”
Currently, Ghana has about 63 private colleges and universities that admit over 26 percent of students who complete secondary schools every year.
