Private universities urge govt to lessen huge corporate tax

Koforidua, March 19, GNA - Dr Samuel H. Donkor, Chairman, Conference of the Heads of Private Universities, Ghana, on Thursday, appealed to the government to support them by lessening the huge corporate tax on private universities.

He said currently more than 30,000 students were studying in private universities across the country, adding that, the universities had expanded the economy by creating more than 1,500 jobs for faculty, administrators and support staff, among other workers. Dr Donkor made the appeal at the third anniversary conference of Heads of Private Universities, at Koforidua.

The three-day conference is under the theme: "Private University Education- Complementing Government's Efforts in Education." Dr Donkor said higher education had become an extremely important element in the organization of modern society.

"As socioeconomic development becomes more knowledge intensive and relies increasingly on professional and managerial staff with advanced training, higher education acquires a key role in any development programme and in the general organization of modern society." He said even though universities had become the engine that drives economic development of modern societies access to higher education remained a big challenge to many people in developing countries, such as Ghana. Dr Donkor therefore congratulated the leadership of the various institutions in the Conference for their vision.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Eastern Regional Minister, who was the guest speaker, said one of the greatest challenges confronting the government and previous ones, had been the issue of waste management in cities and other urban areas.

He, therefore, urged the universities to come out with research findings that could help both the government and the public to deal with the canker. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo assured the private universities of the government's commitment to ensuring that problems associated with land acquisition were reduced considerably. He, therefore, appealed to traditional rulers and other land owners to co-operate with educational authorities and the various Regional Co-ordinating Councils to make the acquisition of land an easy process. Mr Ofosu-Ampofo charged the heads of private universities to work to ensure the prevalence of discipline and respect for authority on their campuses, taking into consideration the issue of dress code for university students as a way of checking indecent dressing. He also urged the lecturers to exhibit high moral standards by not awarding undeserving marks to students for personal reasons to enable students to have confidence in them.