Mr. Michael Nsiah, former President of the Catholic University chapter of Private Universities Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG), on Thursday called on the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare to render an apologize to all private universities.

Mr. Moses Asaga is alleged to have blamed private universities for the high level of graduate unemployment in the country on a BBC network on May 2.

A statement signed by Mr. Nsiah and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani said, Mr Asaga said it in response to a complaint made by the Trade Union Congress about the government’s failure to create job.

Mr. Asaga was quoted in the statement to have said “these private universities take mediocre students who graduate with sub-standard qualifications and also such institutions have saturated the market with sub-standard graduates.”

The statement said, the statements “do not represent the real situation on the ground with regard to graduate unemployment and the very issue of course content or programmes offered in the various universities”.

“The minister’s statements were abusive and inconsiderate, demeaning the credible nature of our private universities both locally and internationally”, it added.

The statement said “the consequences of Mr Asaga’s statements are very enormous and it may continuously endanger the career of graduates from the private universities in the labour front”.

It explained, jobs available in the country “are mostly Health Science, Agriculture and Information Technology oriented, leaving less available opportunities for graduates with humanities and business courses”.

This, it said, had been the major cause of unemployment amongst graduates from both public and private universities with a critical example being the emerging oil economy, “whereby Ghana’s economy does not have the much needed human resource from our tertiary institutions or universities qualified to work in that industry.”

The statement said “the government’s ad hoc intervention to this problem is providing scholarship to Ghanaians to study oil and gas related courses outside, with government paying much money to sponsor these individuals”.

It was of the view that “some of this money spent on students outside could be channeled to some of our local tertiary institutions to provide equally and affordable courses related to the oil and gas industry”. **