Ghana: 50 universities needed to cope with demand

The president of Ghana's Central University College, Professor Victor Patrick Gadzekpo, has estimated that the country needs a minimum of 50 universities - each with an average of 20,000 students - to cope with soaring demand from a growing number of school leavers, reports Public Agenda. Ghana, which has a population of 24.2 million people, currently has six public and 30 private universities.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is for countries to enrol all children of school-going age in primary schools by 2015. Ghana has made strides in meeting this target and so there are increasing numbers of young people seeking admission into senior schools and tertiary institutions.

But only 5% of Ghanaians access tertiary education because of there being relatively few institutions, particularly universities, and because many private institutions are operating below capacity - only one in five students are in private institutions.
Full report on the Public Agenda site