Universities in Ghana face collapse if … – UG Vice Chancellor

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu has warned that administration of public universities in Ghana will grind to a halt if government fails to permit universities to employ more lecturers.
He said most universities still grapple with high student-to-teacher ratio which keeps increasing every year.
He expressed worry government’s moratorium on the recruitment of teachers by public universities  continue to cause a strain on the activities of the Universities.
Speaking to Citi News,  he noted that admission of fresh students at the University of Ghana had increased by almost 20%, increasing the worrying on the high rates of student-to-teacher ratio.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), earlier hinted it may be compelled to suspend its services if the situation continues.
Government recently approved the recruitment of about one thousand teachers to the various tertiary institutions in the country but Professor Oduro Owusu said government must give universities the free hands to employ more staff.
“Basically in the universities, people are employed based on their expertise. So if someone who teaches algebra retires or passes on, you don’t expect me, an entomologist to go and teach algebra. It will demand that we have an algebraist to go and teach algebra. This is the understanding that people in authority would have to get and grant us some leverage to be able to employ,” he said.
He noted that “If things continue like this for some time, I am afraid our system might grand to a halt. Because if you have very high student-lecture ratios, what it means is that you are reducing the contact hours and the implication of all this is that we will be having less quality products coming out.”
So it has an effect on the quality. So I am hoping that people in authority will understand this simple logic and grant the universities the free hand to employ to fill the gap,” he concluded.