Dr. Joyce Rosalind Aryee, Pro Chancellor, Central University College, has called on private tertiary institutions to link their teaching curricula to the socio-economic needs of the country.

“More attention need to be paid to agricultural development, engineering and technical innovation, which we most need at this point of our development," she said.

Dr Aryee said this as the guest speaker at the Fourth Graduation Ceremony of the Data Link University in Tema recently.

The occasion was under the theme: "The Role of Private tertiary Education in the Socio-Economic Development of Ghana.”

She said the present developmental needs of the country required a talented and skillful workforce, adding "private tertiary institutions are crucial in the provision of these talents."

Dr. Aryee said although higher education was expensive there was still the need to help brilliant but students who could not pay for their education.

"It would be ideal for private tertiary institutions to collaborate with organisations within the private sector and create financial schemes that would help these students with good recovery mechanisms."

She said it was also important that government worked out schemes to assist these students with loan schemes.

She noted that whereas tens of thousands of students qualified for tertiary education after Senior High School, the state universities could take in just a little fraction of that number.

Dr. Aryee said even those, who were admitted into the state universities, often had to cope with over-stretched facilities, adding that many qualified students would have been denied tertiary education without private tertiary institutions.

She said one way to fight corruption in society was to imbue into students, principles of honesty and integrity. "If we do not raise God fearing people, we would have no future as a country."

To the graduates, she said, "education never stops. Keep reading. Make use of all the information outlets, such as the internet, news papers, among others. By so doing, you would keep improving upon yourselves."

A total of 425 students were conferred with degrees in Bachelor of Science and Information systems, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration-Human Resource Management option, and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Accounting option.

The rest were Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Banking and Finance option and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration -Marketing option.

Miss Endurance Adjei was adjudged the over-all best student and the best female student with Mr. Osei Yeboah as the best male student.