Prof. Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education
The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah has paid a working visit to the University of Ghana. The purpose of the visit was to ascertain the University’s preparedness towards the 2020 admission into the University of the First Cohorts of the Free Senior High School policy.
After a closed-door meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Senior Management and the student leadership, the Minister was conducted on a tour around campus to inspect on-going academic and student residential infrastructural projects within the University.
Prof. Yankah interacting with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu and other officials
The tour began with the inspection of the new Faculty of Arts building. Prof. Yankah in brief remarks disclosed that the building project commenced in 1971. He expressed the hope that the five-hundred seating capacity building which consists of fifty (50) offices, seminar rooms, and an annex will be commissioned by June 2020. He assured the University that Government will in the next few weeks make available the GH₵4million required to complete the project.
The tour continued with the inspection of a new multi-purpose building for the School of Performing Arts. The building contains a dance hall, music theatre, twenty-three (23) offices, thirty (30) washrooms, one lecture hall and a main performance theatre with the stage yet to be completed.
The Department of Earth Science was the next stop. Professor Mark Sandow Yidana, Dean, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, indicated that the construction of the building began in 2013. He indicated that there were three phases of the building project. The first phase was a Get-Fund project with the other two phases being funded by the Mineral Development Fund. Prof. Yidana indicated that there was enough space for lectures, computer lab, workshop, programme floor, six Heads of Department and administration offices as well as eight offices for lecturers. He noted that the building was more than 85% complete and could be completed by January 2020 if all financial obligations were duly fulfilled.
The team on their way to inspect one of the projects on campus
The team ended the tour at the School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences project site which was just about 2% complete. Professor Patrick Ayeh-Kumi, Provost of the College of Health Sciences, recounted that the building project which started fifteen years ago, requires an amount of One Hundred and Sixty-Seven million Cedis (GH₵167,000,000) for completion. He therefore appealed to the Government to come to their aid. The Provost disclosed that there were no training facilities for students and hence have to depend on borrowed facilities for tutorship. He added that the building when completed, will help ease the pressure on the limited facilities at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and facilitate the admission of more Health and Allied Science students to the University.
The Minister, Professor Kwesi Yankah assured the University of Government’s utmost support to ensure that work is expedited on all uncompleted buildings; especially the School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences which needs urgent attention to aid the admission of more Science students into the University of Ghana.
