The new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education in Winneba (UEW), Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni, has given assurance that the UEW which is the largest public university is embarking on massive infrastructural development in the interest of the free senior high school (FSHS) programme.

He said the FSHS policy was the boldest decision taken by a government in the area of education, for which reason the UEW was very much prepared to play a part in achieving its objective by ensuring that every qualified Ghanaian child for tertiary education gets access to quality tertiary education based on the ongoing expansion of teaching and learning facilities at the university.

Rev. Fr. Afful-Broni said this when he assumed office as the fourth vice-chancellor of the university on Monday after his investiture and induction by the Chairperson of the Governing Council of the University, Prof. Emmanuel Nicholas Abakah.

The colourful ceremony was witnessed by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo; Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh; Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Cape Coast, Most Rev. Fr. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle; Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan; Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Ken Agyapong; and Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin.

The new vice-chancellor said that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had given the university the green light to construct eight pavilions which would be able to seat 500 students each for lectures and that construction would start before the year ends.

He said “apart from these there are other developmental projects going on in the school to accommodate more students”.

According to him, the current number of students in the university stands at 55,000 and that by 2020 when the first batch of the FSHS students apply for university education, the number could increase to 70,000.

The new chancellor, therefore, appealed to the government to quickly consider giving more financial clearance to the university to employ more qualified lecturers to be able to cope with the intake and give the best of tertiary education to qualified candidates since currently, the university has staff strength of 2,080 comprising 502 teaching staff.

Prof. Afful-Broni pointed out that he was taking over at the time when expectations are high with more increasingly sophisticated students seeking to access tertiary education and that he was very much determined to do his best possible to ensure the growth of university education.

The Chairman of the Governing Council Prof. Abakah said that Prof. Afful-Broni was put to the strictest moral and intellectual test and scrutiny and was found out to be more than qualified for the position.

He said having served as the acting VC for one year after serving as the pro-vice chancellor of the same university for more than four years, Prof. Afful-Broni over qualifies to be the new vice- chancellor of UEW.