ASUU STRIKE-NIGERIANS LOSS AND GHANA

Ghana’s public universities are facing a boom in
applications, but do not have sufficient facilities to meet
growing demand that has been exacerbated by an
influx of students from neighbouring countries and a
double cohort leaving school this year.
As a result, admission to universities is no longer based
on obtaining the required grades – some qualified
candidates have been turned down or made to sit
additional selection tests.
The situation has been compounded by students from
neighbouring countries – especially Nigeria – competing
with Ghanaians for admission. Nigerians have been
seeking out Ghanaian institutions because of the
frequent strikes that have bedevilled their public
university campuses.
“Over the past four months, Nigerian universities have
been on strike and students have been forced to stay at
home so it is better for some of us to look elsewhere to
educate our children,” a Nigerian parent, Folu
Agbeniran, told University World News in Accra.
Agbeniran said he had spent a month in Ghana looking
at institutions that could admit his child as a first-year
political science student.
“It is expensive to send your child to universities in
Europe because even if you have the money, the visa
regime has become very complicated so it is only logical
to turn to a neighbouring country where everything is
working,” he said.
Local students have become frustrated as institutions
put in place competitive procedures to select qualified
applicants. This year the University of Ghana rejected
39,645 qualified applicants who wanted to pursue
undergraduate or graduate programmes in the 2013-14
academic year.
The vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana,
Professor Ernest Aryeetey, said the situation was worse
this year because there were two groups of students
that sat the West African Senior School Certificate
Examination in May-June 2013. This was due to the
shortening of the four-year senior high school course to
three years.
Aryeetey said about 37,507 undergraduates and 2,138
graduates were denied admission. He described as
“painful” the decision to reject 881 applicants who
obtained good aggregates.
“We are faced with the painful decision of having to
turn down the applications of many otherwise well
qualified applicants due to limitations of staff and
facilities,” he said.
As a result of these limitations some science students
said they had to sit selection tests to gain admission.
“I made the grades and was expecting to be admitted
but the university authorities used a test that they
conducted to deny my admission,” said Joseph Addo.
“My dream of gaining admission to study medicine has
been dashed and I am not sure of what I can do because
private universities are very expensive and my parents
cannot afford to pay those fees,” Addo added.