With a current student population of about 28,482, the University of Ghana is not only the oldest but the largest of the five public Universities in Ghana.
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With a current student population of about 28,482, the University of Ghana is not only the oldest but the largest of the five public Universities in Ghana.
Originally meant to be fully residential, less than half of the student population now have residential status. Although non-residence is encouraged, the absence of suitable accommodation in town and reliable transportation discourage attendance by otherwise qualified students. Efforts to persuade real estate developers to invest in hostels for use by students are receiving positive results. An Investment Committee set up since 1992 continues to seek other ways of diversifying sources of funding to assure additional facilities for sustaining increased enrolments.
The initial curricular emphasis was on the liberal arts from which trained personnel were produced to replace expatriate staff in senior positions in nearly all of the public service. There was also provision for vocational programmes to enable middle-level personnel already in employment to update their skills.
Under a national education reform programme currently under way, the emphasis now has shifted towards the diversification of the curricular to provide for more courses in science and technology, vocational and post-graduate training.
The University has since 1993 developed a strategic plan, now updated, to formulate strategies forimplementation in the first decade of the 21st Century. The University’s strategic plan has among other things identified areas where the University has special strengths which may be brought to wider attention and built up to maximum capacity.
Already, the University enjoys considerable national and international prestige from its very successful extra-mural study programmes dating from the inception of the University. Programmes in Distance Education aimed at reaching more adult and other non-typical learners feature prominently in the University’s plans for the immediate future.
In the long term, the University expects to become more comprehensive in its offerings including the extra-curricular. A sports complex to provide for the major disciplines of sports is currently under construction as an important component of a well-rounded education. The establishment of a Sports Directorate will allow the integration of sports into both the academic and recreational programmes of the University.
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