<<Print>>

Zenith University College has called on government to increase the student’s loan scheme to enable them access the loan and invest in their education.

Mr Kofi Ohene, Registrar, Zenith University College, said the College has a population of 60 per cent of foreign students with 40 per cent of Ghanaian students and that the Ghanaian students found it extremely difficult to pay for their fees.

He said increasing the loan would help lessen the burden on parents and provide an avenue for students to borrow and pay when they are gainfully employed.

Mr Ohene said this when a 10-member parliamentary select committee on education paid a courtesy call on the College to acquaints themselves with the operations of the University.

He was of the view that a national dialogue would be necessary for both public and private universities to carve out modalities in funding these universities to undertake Doctor in Philosophy (PhD) research since the fees are expensive.

Mr Ohene expressed concern about engaging PhD lecturers as the standard to teach in the universities since it is difficult for their outfit to sponsor lecturers for the doctorate degree level and called for national discourse with the National Accreditation Board and stakeholders to address the issue.

He said the College was established in December 2001 and took off as a tertiary institution in November 2005 with a philosophy of providing borderless higher education to contribute its quota in tackling the problems that beset the country’s educational system.

“Zenith University College prides itself to be Ghana's most contemporary private University with the most up to date teaching and learning resources in the country. Inspired by our vision of being a leading higher education institution in Africa, Zenith University College continuously invests in upgrading its facilities and methods of teaching and learning”, he added.

Mr Tekyi Asiedu, Rector of the College, said last year the University had a population of 2,500 but reduced this year to 1800 due to the low performance in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations.

He called for a review of entry requirements to the Universities especially with D7, stressing that the population of the school reduced because most students had D7, making it difficult to gain admission.

Mr Asiedu said the College offer courses in Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Law, Diploma of Law, and that the various programmes are specially designed to develop areas of study relevant to a profession and help Students achieve valuable skills or develop a new career.

Mr Mathias Puozaa, Chairman of Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, said the Committee would visit all private universities in the country since it is part of the supervisory role under the Ministry of Education.

He said the idea is identify the locations of these private universities, find out the courses they offer, ascertain their accreditation status and keep themselves informed on their concerns.

He said the Committee would forward the concerns of the College to Parliament for debate and come out with holistic decisions that would serve the interest of all.

Professor Dominic Fobi, Ranking Member of the Committee, said the visit was also to learn some ideas, innovations, challenges and general thoughts in running private Universities in the country.