Government is engaged in necessary stakeholder consultations to equip universities to tackle expected increase in the number of tertiary students in the next three years, as a result of its flagship Free Senior High School Programme, Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh has assured.

“We are committed to ensuring that all higher education institutions in the country get their fair share of development projects to enable them all meet their obligations more effectively.

To this end, government is committed to providing the needed infrastructure and equipment to enable the universities absorb the expected increase in the number of potential students that will be graduating from government’s flagship Free SHS programme.”

The Minister gave the assurance at the official launch of the 70th Anniversary celebration of the University of Ghana, held at the school’s main campus in Accra.

Dr. Opoku-Prempeh congratulated the school for how far it has come since its inception, urging managers of the institution to continue working hard to improve on achievements made so far.

He also called on all tertiary institutions to present to his ministry, their plans on how the expected increase in student numbers will be handled, as well as their expectations of government in that regard.

In his address at the event, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Vice- Chancellor of the University reiterated the institution’s vision of transforming into a world-class research-intensive university that serves the growing needs of Ghana and Africa at large, urging all to support in their own ways towards the achievement of same.

He also outlined a number of strategies that his outfit seeks to adopt to generate additional funds to effectively run the school, as government’s financial support remains inadequate.

“The university has strategized to generate income to cover teaching, research, infrastructure, maintenance, and development, as well as service and administration. The challenge is how to diversify the sources of internally generated funds and reduce the burden of students even as they make fair contribution,” he said.