Accra, Aug. 12, GNA - Government and stakeholders in tertiary education are discussing the new user fees for fresh entrants. Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Education, Youth and Sports said this when he took his turn at the meet the press series in Accra. He said government's attention has been drawn to the increases and would look into the matter to arrive at an agreeable solution.

Government, he said, recognized the limitations facing the Universities in areas such as accommodation, lecture halls and utilities and would do all it can to improve on the state of universities in the country. Fresh students entering the University of Ghana, Legon are now required to pay a total of six and eight million cedis for the Humanities and Bachelor of Science Programmes respectively.

The Minister noted that the tertiary education has seen some improvement in academic and physical facilities through support provided by the Ghana Education Trust Fund.

He said there has been a significant increase in intake in the past three years with enrolment in the universities increasing from 40,673 in 2000-2001 academic year to 53,895 in the 2002-2003 academic year. "The corresponding figures from the polytechnics are 18,459 and 23,717 representing an increase of 28.5 per cent."

Mr Baah-Wiredu said government's policy of encouraging private participation in the provision of tertiary education was yielding good results with 25 private institutions, including nine university colleges being given accreditation by the national accreditation board. The Minister pledged government's continued support for distance education programmes as a compliment of the mode of tertiary education delivery.

He said the average male/female enrolment for the past five years, "from 1996 to 2001 was a ratio of 73:27 for the universities and 79:21 for the polytechnics, which is against the national norm."