Kumasi, May 29, GNA- The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), has within a year allocated 43 billion cedis for faculty development, with 30 per cent of the money meant for research grant.

Mr Kwame Amporfo Twumasi, Deputy Minister of Education and Sports announced this at the 11th annual delegates congress of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) in Kumasi on Saturday. Hundred (100) delegates from four public universities are attending the two-day congress on the theme: "Funding Graduate and Research Training in Ghana -The Role of the Universities and the Government". Mr Twumasi said the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF); a fund created with the support of World Bank to strengthen tertiary education had a separate window for post-graduate education. He said TALIF was supporting the acquisition of equipment as well as the review of the curricula of post-graduate education in the public universities.

The Minister said Government had accepted recommendations by the Education Reform Review Committee, to expand post-graduate training and research.

He expressed the need for greater collaboration between the universities and the business community. Nana Kwaku Asiedu, President of GRASAG, said lack of accommodation, inadequate funding for research, laboratory equipment and other logistics were some of the problems confronting graduate students and appealed to the government and other stakeholders to address the problems.

Professor Kwesi Andam, Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who chaired the function, called on the delegates to come out with proposals that would promote post-graduate studies.