Professor Daniels Kwabena Obeng-Ofori, Vice Chancellor of the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG), says the university needs to be granted a Presidential Charter, in order to improve upon its facilities.
A Presidential Charter is the academic equivalent of a seal of approval, which testifies that a tertiary institution has come of age and is officially recognised as an institution, capable of independently contributing to the academic body of knowledge.
Prof Obeng-Ofori, speaking at the launch of an endowment fund for the university in Accra, said ten years after the school was inaugurated in 2003, the student population had grown from 50 to 2,000, adding that, that in year 2018, the student population of the university still remained 2,000.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori said there was the need for the university to ensure excellence by building stake-holder confidence, creating a conducive academic atmosphere and increasing academic programmes.
He said the university needed funds to do this, adding that, tuition fees from students alone could not run a university.
The Vice Chancellor explained that the university had a lot to offer, but lacked the resources to do so.
He said the CUCG would do all it could, to continue churning out students who would not only be academically competent, but morally sound, in order to make meaningful contributions to the development of the nation.
Mr. Albert Essien, Board Chair of the Ghana Home Loans and Special Guest at the occasion, launched the fund and called for the need for universities to partner with corporate organisations, in order for these organisations to sponsor some of their programmes.
He pledged a seed amount of 20,000 dollars to the fund and expressed the hope, that the endowment fund would lift the CUCG to the level of excellence it aimed for.
At the 2017 Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference(GCBC), it was resolved that in view of the challenges facing the Catholic University at Fiapre, the GCBC would support the Catholic University by soliciting for funds through its members, to help raise standards at the university.
The fund is expected to satisfy regulatory requirements for receiving the Presidential Charter, improve infrastructure on site and raise the standard of the university to that of a top tier continental university.
Source: GNA
