The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah has said that the new tertiary education policy document seeks to eliminate all barriers that restrict applicants from gaining admissions into tertiary institutions.
According to him, the demand for pass mark in some core subjects before qualifying for admission will be a thing of the past.
Speaking at the 11th congregation ceremony of the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), Professor Yankah indicated that government wants to give qualified Ghanaians equal access to tertiary education in the country.
“Simply put, government seeks to remove bottlenecks in the admissions processes and policies that are simply unjust and discriminate against a majority of students from less endowed homes and institutions where it is an exception rather than a rule to get credit passes in all subjects where no provision is made for even one non-credit pass in a subject is an amount of flexibility according to this new policy which will be rolled out. “
“Obtaining D7 in some core subjects, will thus be further clarified to give hope to some applicants in the humanities for example who may have passed mathematics without credits but are still been denied access to university even to courses where mathematics will not stand their way”, he noted.
“It is indeed, a joy browsing through the policy document. It is in this document that the new centralized application to universities is outlined, seeking to reduce the stress involved in applying to multiple universities at considerable expense, to a one-stop-shop, where multiple applications are rolled into a single effort, at one unit cost. No stress, no tears,” he said.
He said through this policy alone, Ghana‘s Gross Enrolment Ratio at the tertiary level, currently at 16 per cent was bound to inch higher.
Prof Yankah said even more significant, was an emerging admissions policy that introduces some flexibility in the consideration of some non-credit passes for admission into universities, and other tertiary institutions.
He said the new education policy document was not meant in any way, to compromise the quality of education; it rather seeks to introduce greater fairness into admission processes, as well as bring Ghana in line with more flexible admission practices in several countries far and near.
Prof Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, Vice-Chancellor, UPSA, said the University was currently blending professional programmes with normal degree programmes, aimed at making the UPSA graduates more relevant and job-ready, through their dual qualification scheme.
He commended the graduates for finishing hard and for attaining scholarship with professionalism. He further advised them to continue acquiring knowledge. “Please do not forget to continue to develop your minds. Today does not end your mental development. Remember that the greatest talent god gave is the brain. The problems of our society can be solved by developing minds”.
At the event, a total of 657 students from the UPSA’s School of Graduate Studies were graduated.
The total figure comprises of 18 Master of Philosophy in Leadership students, 632 Master of Business Administration students with various specialisations and seven Master of Science in Leadership students.