University of Ghana seeks support to increase fees

Professor Edward Ofori Sarpong, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, of the University of Ghana, Legon has appealed to the public to understand and support the University to upwardly review the user fees paid by students to supplement government subvention.

He said the donor community; non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals could also assist the university with facilities to enable it to maintain its enviable position in the country and the world. Professor Sarpong made the appeal when he received two ostrich chicks worth four million cedis and a 330 eggs capacity incubator worth about 12 million cedis on behalf of the University's Agricultural Research Station at Nungua, Accra.

A statement issued in Accra on Thursday and signed by Mrs E. Agyei-Mensah, Assistant Registrar of the University's Relations Office, said the Management of Mafi Farms donated the chicks while Mr K. Adu Bediako, a philanthropist, donated the incubator.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor said the equipment and chicks would not only help in effective research and teaching in the University, but would benefit secondary schools and the public. Professor Anna Barnes, Dean of Agriculture of the University, said inadequate transport, lack of compaction facilities and water shortage as the problems facing the station established in 1953, adding "the only tractor of the station breaks down frequently".

Mr Bediako and Ms Angela Abraham, Managing Director of Mafi Farms, said the donation was their contribution to human resource development in the University and the country. They said in addition, the donation would be beneficial for research and the setting up of private enterprises.