The President of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT) has dismissed suggestions that the increasing number of tertiary institutions in the country is contributing to the growing number of graduate unemployment.
Professor Clement Dzidonu said Ghana is failing to meet the world average of 18.6 universities per a million of its population.
“According to the National Accreditation Board (NAB), we now have in Ghana, 15 public universities, 43 private universities and 10 polytechnics giving a total of 58 degree awarding tertiary institutions in the country,” Professor Dzidonu said.
Ghana with a population of about 25 million has 68 degree awarding tertiary institutions, which translates 2.72 universities per a million of the population.
This he said is far below the world average of 18.6 universities per a million population.
Speaking at the graduation class of the 5th congregation of AIT, Professor Dzidonu called for more support for tertiary institutions to produce world class graduates to help in the development of the country.
Meanwhile, the President of the Ghana Heart Foundation, Professor Frimpong Boateng as the guest speaker at the graduation also lamented the failure of Ghanaian politicians to identify science and technology as the solution to the country’s under development.
According to him, the nature of politics in the country is contributing to the lack of ambition in Ghana’s developmental agenda.
He called for targeted research and education aimed at solving the country’s problems.
Ghana devotes only 0.03 % of its GDP to research and development.
Professor Frimpong Boateng asserted that “it’s not even enough to pay our scientist to do research, especially CSIR, but if you look at people/countries that are serious they will spend about 2.5 or 3.5 percent of their GDP on research and development.”
He also called for a targeted plan to harness the benefits of graduates from the University of Mines and technology saying, ‘’Ghana as a trail blazer in training experts in mining must take full advantage of the benefits of these experts.”
Amongst those graduating included 34 PhD candidates, 75 master’s degree, 34 bachelor’s degree, 124 DTech and 190 CTech.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana