Professor Akwasi Asabere, the Principal of the Methodist University College – Ghana (MUCG), has appealed to government to expedite action on the establishment of a National Research Fund to support researchers in public and private universities.
He said the current trend in academia had made it imperative for university teachers to have doctorate degrees which demanded serious financial commitments.
Prof. Asabere made the appeal at the 14th Congregation and the Graduation of 1,057 students of MUCG at the Dansoman Campus in Accra.
He said a number of candidates who were qualified to undertake the doctorate degree programme were unable to do so or were compelled to abandon the course mid-way due to financial challenges.
“Neither the university teacher nor the university finds it easy funding the research work associated with doctorate programmes,” Prof. Asabere said.
He called on stakeholders and direct beneficiaries of research such as industries, financial institutions and businesses to include in their annual budget provision of scholarships for postgraduate studies.
Nana Professor Osei K. Darkwa, the President of the Ghana Technology University College, and the guest speaker, said tertiary education in Ghana should have a strong linkage with the manpower needs of the country.
“The dynamics of our manpower needs, since independence, are indicative of the fact that Ghana today needs a new breed of graduates to man her economy,” he said.
Most Reverend Titus Awotwe Pratt, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church – Ghana, and Chairman of the Methodist University College Council, said the church would stand by the MUCG to ensure that it emerged as a university of distinction whose graduates bore sterling qualities to distinguish them from others.
Prof Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said the MUCG was one of the emerging capable universities because of its footprints in the country’s history of tertiary education since it came onto the scene 16 years ago.
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Source: GNA