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An expansion programme to address the perennial problem of inadequate accommodation for students and staff in the country�s public universities will take off soon to reposition those institutions as the citadels of teaching and learning. Under the project, additional lecture halls, more funds for research and development, as well as improved remuneration for lectures and other auxiliary staff at the Universities, are to be provided President John Evans Atta Mills announced the programme when he met the executive board of the African Universities Association (AUA) at the Castle Osu, yesterday. He explained that the government was duty bound to resource the universities to world-class standards to offer students the opportunity to pursue academic disciplines tailored towards meeting the demands of society. According to him, the government had realised that rebuilding the capacities of the country�s universities was in a way guaranteering the future economic progress of the country and improving the material conditions of the broad masses of the people. President Mills told members of the association, led by its President, Professor I.O. Oloyede, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University of IIIorin, Nigeria, that the government would not toy with education, which it considered the key to the country�s prosperity. He explained that the country�s economic development could not be sustained if the government played down the significance of university education by allocating fewer resources to the sector. He said products of the universities could be found in all sectors, including industry, manufacturing, medicine, nursing, agriculture and commerce. President Mills said the ability of the government to actively support the universities would guarantee a continuous stream of intellectuals who could help address the rising expectations of society. For his part, Prof Oloyade congratulated Presdient Mills on his election as the Head of State of Ghana, saying, �The AUA is proud that one of our own, in the person of Prof. Mills, had been elected President of Ghana.� President at the meeting were the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, and Prof. Akilakpa Sawyerr, a former Presdient of the AUA.