A group calling itself “Concerned citizens of Upper West” has accused the leadership of the University for Development Studies (UDS) of deliberately working to collapse the Wa campus of the University.
At a press conference in Wa on Wednesday, the group cited the continuous reduction in the number of students admitted to the Wa campus, movement of programmes from the Wa campus and the refusal by the UDS authorities to give the Wa campus a distance learning center as reasons for the claim.
Issahaque Suleman, one of the leaders of the “Concerned Citizens of Upper West” who read the press statement said, ” we are alarmed and outraged by the sinister, calculated and deliberate plans to see the collapse of the Wa campus by the Vice Chancellor and staff of the University.”
SYSTEMATIC REDUCTION OF THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS
The group explained that a total of 4612 students graduated from the Wa campus of UDS in 2014. The number declined to 2413 in 2017 representing a reduction of almost 50%.
The Tamale campus, however, saw an increase in enrollment from 335 in 2014 to 1497 in 2017, representing about 400% rise. The Nyamkpala campus also in the Northern Region witnessed a rise in admissions from 552 to 919 during the same period.
The leadership of UDS mentioned lack of security and infrastructure on the Wa campus as some of the reasons for the reduced admissions.
Deliberate movement of programs from UDS
The group claims the departments of communication and innovation, journalism and Media studies, public relations and advertising, among many others at the faculty of arts, have been moved to the Tamale campus.
The department of sociology and social work, department of geography, department of philosophy and religious studies, department of political studies, department of economics, department of history and diaspora studies and the center for regional integration which are also under the faculty of social sciences are also realigned to faculties in Tamale.
Two programmes from the school of business and law also have two of its programmes moved to Tamale, while Africa and general studies are also taken off from the Wa campus and the Environment and resource studies will now be at Navrongo.
The realignment programme will now give Tamale six faculties; School of allied sciences, faculty of education, faculty of arts, faculty of social sciences, IIRACS and the school of medicine and health sciences.
The Nyamkpala campus will also have four faculties; agriculture, natural resources and environment, agribusiness and communication sciences and school of engineering.
Lack of distance learning center
UDS established distance learning centers at Navrongo and Bawku in the Upper East region, Tamale and Sawla in the Northern region. The Upper West region has no single learning center.
According to the group, ” these things that the UDS authorities have done and continue to do in the name of realignment betrays their intentions and thus tell us the sort of people in leadership. We will not give up the fight but will proceed boldly against UDS authorities by organizing demonstrations frequently until they listen, locking up lecture halls and offices in the Wa campus and petitoning the president of the Republic of Ghana.”
The group also criticized the Member of Parliament in the region for failing to speak on the happenings at the UDS.
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By: Mahama Latif | citinewsroom.com | Ghana