University Don gives thumps-up to private Universities … Says but for their emergence, Ghana would face social crises

The Provost of the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Dr. Dr. Daniel Buor, has revealed that but for the emergence of private university colleges in the country a little over a decade ago, the country would have plunged into social crises.

This, according to him, was due to the fact that the public universities lacked the capacity to admit all qualified applicants in the country.

“Indeed, hardly could the traditional public universities admit 60% of qualified applicants,” he said, adding “The lack of capacity to admit all qualified applicants could have created social crises, but for the intervention of private university colleges.”

He noted that today there are six public universities, three public institutes of university status, three private universities that have received presidential charter, and 25 private university colleges that have been accredited by the National Accreditation Board (NAB).

The KNUST Don made this known at the launch of the 30th Anniversary celebrations of Valley View University (VVU) last Wednesday, at the university's campus at Oyibi, near Dodowa.

He revealed that a discussion of private university education in Ghana would be incomplete without the mention of the VVU, which is the primus private university in Ghana, the first to be accredited by the NAB, and also to receive Presidential Charter.

He continued that as an establishment of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the university has lived up to its expectation in vindicating its status as the premier private university in the country, and had actualised its vision and mission.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Buor disclosed that software, developed by Mr. Gbede Adebayo, a student of the university, for the National Vehicle Insurance Validation Scheme, was a remarkable piece of academic and technological breakthrough.

He said the system, among others, was capable of effectively addressing and checking the habitual falsification of vehicle insurance policies by automobile users, and assist insurance organisations generate statistics on the category of vehicle insurance policies, which is most falsified by automobile users, in order to review security measures to address them.

Notwithstanding the achievements, he stated that there was much to be done to improve the VVU's ranking in Africa, and therefore advised the administrators to examine the status of the economy, and structure academic programmes that meet the needs of the country, in this era of globalisation.

He made the appeal to the government to consider the private universities in the allocation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), since they were also contributing to the training of requisite manpower for the country.

On his part, the Director of Tertiary Education at the Ministry of Education, in a goodwill message, said he had been following with keen interest, the 30-year journey of the VVU, saying he was glad to assert that in spite of the numerous challenges, the VVU had endeared itself to all, and developed into a unique private tertiary institution.

He also urged the teaching staff and non- teaching staff, to build upon the solid foundation laid by their predecessors, and draw inspiration from the dedication and selflessness of the founders, so as to fully attain the vision that inspired the establishment of this great institution.

The NAB, in their goodwill message, noted that there could not have been a more suitable theme for the celebration - “30 Years of Excellent Seventh-day Adventist Tertiary Education: Leadership and Trailblazing in Ghana's private Education” - adding that the VVU had endeared itself as a good leader, and a trailblazer in Ghana's private tertiary education.

From a very humble beginning, as the Adventist Missionary College in 1979, the university was renamed Valley View College in 1989, accredited by the NAB in 1997, and granted Presidential Charter in 2006, to assume the name VVU, hence making it stand tall among private universities in the country.