News usually thrives on controversy, so most of us would have no difficulty remembering J.A Kufour’s last gesture as president, where he ordered the reinstatement of ACP Nathan Kofi Boakye with all his entitlements, and the public’s reaction at the time. We would probably not remember that the NPP President had also promised $1billion as seed money to boost the capacity of one of the private universities in the country. He had before that donated a bus to that same university. On that occasion, the President noted that Ghana’s development would depend on science-based programmes in our universities. He also underscored his government’s commitment to assist private initiatives in tertiary education, stressing that private universities deserve financial and logistical support, as well as encouragement from the government and the nation.

We also know that the NDC government under Rawlings supported education in numerous and most often very laudable ways. At least, we remember the important Hunger award donation to the University of Development studies by President Rawlings. We are a nation that cares about education and human development. The sector engages us in national debates, than health and security. It is a big area with big problems. And we are constantly seeking to find solutions to the numerous problems. We recently went through heated discussions on the number of years required to complete senior secondary education. There are always lots of ideas for policy makers to consider.

One important area of tertiary education in Ghana is the refreshing addition of private universities to the few public institutions of higher learning. Until 1995 when Valley View University was established (it had earlier started as Adventist Missionary College in Bekwai-Ashanti in 1979), university education was only obtainable from the three main institutions of Legon, UST and the University of Cape Coast. There were other affiliate institutions of tertiary training but university education was primarily understood as a choice between three bodies. Today, we can count about 9 public universities and some 25 private university colleges in Ghana. A university for the Volta region is due to start in 2010. We have since 1993 had the national council for tertiary education, a body which oversees the improvement of tertiary education in Ghana. There is also the National Accreditation Board which administers the accreditation of new universities. Apart from these, there are associations and many unions on university campuses that play a great role in fashioning policies for improvement in the education sector, even if their role seems to be limited to bargaining for salary increases and service benefits.

While the sector is generally bedevilled with general problems, we seem to have borne with many of them for a very long time or simply allowed some of them to grow into a solution by themselves, even though nobody ever worked at them. We have all welcomed private universities as a solution to many of the problems in the sector, especially regarding the student intake pressures that the few public institutions had to deal with. Today, students in Ghana, unlike graduates of just a decade ago, have unbridled choice in deciding the university they want to attend and the programmes they want to study. Indeed, in 1998 a Minister of Education hailed private universities as necessary interventions that have come to reduce the heavy tax payer burden of funding public education. There were talks of government granting tax exemptions for imports on educational equipment, laboratory kits and books. Those sounded like answers to some questions, but we have not answered one important question, probably due to its characteristically controversial nature. Or, perhaps, it is simply inappropriate to ask: What is the quality of students that go to the private universities?

Last week, the Kumasi based Luv FM reported that “only one-third of applicants who applied to enter the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for the 2009-2010 academic year were offered admission due to inadequate lecturers and facilities.” The Elton John Brobbey report quoted the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Kwafo Adarkwa, as saying that “the university was liaising with private universities to stem the tide.” “As part of these efforts, the university has entered into an agreement with Ghana Telecom and Data Link universities to absorb some of the applicants”, the report continued. The Kwame Nkrumah University would also consider establishing a campus of the Ghana Law School to help check the quota admission problems at the Morkola School. These measures are not entirely new to the drawing board.

The report did not comment on the grades of the applicants who did not meet the university’s requirements. It also did not say how many they were; it put it at two-thirds. We were also not given information on the individual programmes the applicants had chosen. We didn’t get a report on their suitability for the programmes they had applied for. While we could leave all these journalistic details for those who would want to see all the hows and the whys of a story answered for good copy, we would wish to ask the actual reasons why two-thirds of the applicants didn’t make the mark but bothered to apply. It would also be worthwhile to ask whether they were of an inferior quality. And if they were not good for the public universities, why would they be good for the private universities? Is it enough to use lack of space to explain all these?

Understandably, public universities cannot always absorb all applicants every year. There are screening procedures. And there is also what is termed ‘cutting points’ in academic circles. Years ago, students who did not make the cutting point retook their examinations to make themselves more competitive for the next admission year. They didn’t have the luxury of just being handed over to other institutions because there were no spaces for them. Those days, students who were deemed quality at the time of admission got to pursue the disciplines they opted for. They did not always excel but most of them did. That also meant that their compatriots who were not competitive enough to receive training in courses and professions they wanted, made do with courses that were thrust on them by the universities. And often, they managed to just wait to graduate.

Today, university education is no more a privilege for a few qualified applicants. We are doing well to encourage students to avoid waiting unnecessarily for limited places. That is the wisdom in the private university boom. But the boom may also compromise on certain important things. Do we have instances where private universities reject qualified students who are willing to pay high tuition fees, and recommend them for public universities for? Parents who are willing to pay fees quoted in US dollars for their wards at private universities, are convinced of the quality of tuition and the small numbers that encourage good student-teacher ratio. Prof Adarkwa contends that the student-lecturer ratio at KNUST is way beyond the university’s standards. That isn’t the case at Mensah Otabil’s Central University, a very good university, I have been told. Visionary Patrick Awuah has not said that about Ashesi University. Instead, the Ashesi website states: “We admit a limited number of students each year, which means that you will experience quality interactions with your lecturers and classmates because of our low student to faculty ratio.” So far, the limited numbers have counted towards a very good thing. Out of the 54 students who graduated in May 2009, (compare that with Legon or KNUST) 70% had already received job offers from good organisations before graduation. That is because the university places students on internships with business and service institutions. Internship is a bit like childbirth at public universities. And the child will die, because the doctors and the nurses there do not care. And even if they cared, where would they send 200 philosophy students? They had better joined the army.

We would believe that a computer science student at Ashesi would have no difficulty locating a computer at the laboratory to write his assignment on Programming 111. In 1999, when my friend graduated with a good first class honours in computer science at one of the public universities, there were about six computers for more than a hundred students. So, we had computer science graduates who found the computer the eighth wonder of the world. It was not because of its incredibly utilitarian nature, but because it was new to them. Today, students carry laptops in their bags like kelewele.

We still have not quite answered the question about the quality of students who patronise these very useful private universities. If I were to start a bachelor’s degree, I would not mind taking English again, but I would consider why I have to go to a private college to pay fees heavier than my father’s heavenly compensation for his liturgy works, when I can get the same thing virtually for free at Accra Legon. But unlike before, I have lots of options to consider when I am rejected by Legon. So, do I sign on at any other place of higher learning as a rejected stone or a good stone that was unjustifiably rejected?

Maybe the rejection question shouldn’t arise, because many people are turning away from the so called ‘academic courses’ at Legon for finance and administration at the private university next door. Years ago, students from UST joked that all the courses at Legon ended with logy, or sophy, as in Archaeology, Philosophy and Englishlogy, as they called mine. On their part, Legonites also teased that the Suame ‘Magazine’ fitters were better engineers than the engineering students in their science faculties. These remained boyish pranks but there were serious issues underneath. Today, students are taking courses with very cute and professionally strategic names. Central has the Bsc in Agribusiness Management while the Fiapre-based Catholic University offers a Bsc degree in Health Informatics. Private universities seem to be enjoying so much good will and incredible patronage. The quality of graduates from those institutions is good. But they would do well to improve their standards. They must make themselves competitive, not as expensive avenues for leftovers. They should enhance scholarship by engaging in ventures that the public institutions have neglected. They should aim much higher than developing university newsletters; it is about time a Ghanaian university had a regular student newspaper written and edited by students. That will be my kind of university.

Benjamin Tawiah

btawiah@hotmail.com