The University of Ghana has exceeded its target of achieving a female-male enrolment ratio of 50:50 by the year 2020.
Out of the total enrolment of 18,212 recorded by the university during the 2019/2020 academic year, 9,288 were female, while 8,924 were males, indicating a 51:49 female-male ratio.
Female, male ratio
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, announced this at the congregation of the College of Humanities for undergraduates on Thursday.
He said 15,167 of the enrolment were undergraduates and 3,045 were graduate students in various programmes at its campuses in the 2019/2020 academic year.
Affiliation
Speaking on the affiliation of public colleges of education to public universities, Prof. Owusu said out of the 46 colleges of education, six of them had been affiliated to the university, effective October 2019.
He listed the colleges as the Accra College of Education, Enchi College of Education, Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education, Amedzofe, Peki College of Education, Gbewaa College of Education at Pusiga and the Mount Mary College of Education at Somanya.
He explained that the affiliation agreement was expected to guarantee the institutional integration of colleges into their affiliated universities.
Research grants
He stated that the Office of Research, Innovation and Development was spearheading the university’s vision of becoming a world-class research-intensive institution.
“For the 2018/2019 academic year, the office processed about 81 research grant agreements with a total grant value of over $42.5 million. This represents over a 1,000 per cent increase in grant revenue over the last three academic years,” Prof. Owusu stated.
Centres of Excellence
The vice-chancellor said during the year under review, the university won funding to set up three Centres of Excellence under a funding arrangement by the government and the World Bank.
The centres are the Africa Centre for Excellence for Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship; the African Centre of Excellence for Genetic Medicine and the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious and Non-Communicable Diseases.
“The establishment of these centres will go a long way to dedicate funding for research and for the training of PhDs in agriculture, public health and medicine,” Prof. Owusu said.
To the students
Addressing the graduating class, he prayed that their commitment to obtain knowledge did not end with their graduation but that “you will continue to seek knowledge to enable you to make significant changes in your lives and in society as a whole.
“As you move on to the next stage of your lives, remember to uphold the values of the university – respect, commitment, integrity and loyalty,” Prof. Owusu advised.
The Co-founder and Chief Executive of Officer (CEO) of Crescendo Consult Ltd, Mrs Doris Y.A. Ahiati, who was the guest speaker, challenged the graduates to go out and excel “because, despite advancement in science and technology, humanity is at the core of our existence.”
Leadership
Mrs Ahiati said it was time to redefine leadership for Ghana and Africa.
She wondered how the job could be done “if we think leadership is chilling in the air conditioner and calling the shots without knowing precisely the problem we are trying to solve.”
“As a leader, you have to be in the problem to develop the most suitable, effective and creative solutions to address them,” she told the graduating students.
She reminded them that becoming a graduate was no longer equal to suit and tie “if that does not solve a problem.”
Rather, she said, that graduate was equal to analytical thinking and dissecting of problems to arrive at appropriate solutions.