UDS FACED WITH INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEM

After 17 years of its establishment as the only public University in the three Northern Regions of Ghana, the University for Development Studies (UDS) is still grappling with infrastructural problems as almost all the 19,904 students spread across the four campuses of the University are reportedly stranded without hostel accommodation.

As a result, severe pressure is now on the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government on whose ideology the University for Development Studies was established in somewhere 1993 to see to the swift and comprehensive financial and infrastructural development of the university. Anything short of this, Savannahnews has gathered would prevent the School from offering the required admission to deserving students into the UDS in the next few years.

However, the Vice Chancellor of the UDS, Professor Yakubu Haruna has hinted that the University had now come to the threshold where it was left with no other option than to spruce or stabilize the number of students in the face of the unreasonably inadequate academic facilities and infrastructure on the four campuses of the UDS.

He said the UDS as a result of its demand-driven programmes, had within the last 17 years seen massive improvement in students’ population from a humble beginning of 40 in 1993 to 19,904 in 2010, but very little was done by governments to ensure that the University meets its intended purpose of sharpening the knowledge base of the people in the three Northern Regions and Ghana as a whole for an accelerated development.

Speaking at the 11^th Congregation of the UDS at the Tamale Campus, the Vice Chancellor bemoaned that the University had awfully failed to provide residential accommodation to its students across the four campuses, whiles almost all the 1,243 teaching and non-teaching staff of the University were also faced with accommodation problems apart from he the VC.

Prof Haruna said the UDS was paying huge sums of monies to private estate developers and landlords in providing accommodation to their staff, while students were also paying exorbitant rents to landlords who had rented their houses to them in the nearby communities. The situation has compelled most students in the Wa, Navrongo, Nyankpala and Tamale to rely on motorbikes with some of them involving in daily accidents.

At the Wa Campus for instance which has over half of the total student population only 700 students according to the Vice Chancellor had been provided with hotel by the University and the distance from the hotel to the lecture halls leaved much to be desired. Even though the UDS received some relative attention from the past government through the GETfund especially at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences on the Tamale campus and at the Integrated Development Studies on the Wa campus, there are still vast rooms for improvement.

In spite of the teething problems facing the University, Prof Haruna Yakubu UDS continued to produce quality products, who continue to excel in the various sectors of the economy.

At the 11^th Congregation however, a total of 2,033 graduands successfully passed all the requirements for the award of degrees, diplomas and masters qualifications this year. Out of the figure, 147 received diploma certificates, 1,822 were awarded bachelors of degrees, and 19 received masters degrees.

However, the Vice Chancellor appealed to government to release the first and the second trenches of the 20 million Ghana cedis promised by the President as “Seed Money”.

On his part, the Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Kofi Awoonor who represented President John Evans Atta Mills reiterated government’s desire to develop the UDS to become a centre of excellence.

He noted that, government was committed to develop the Tamale Teaching Hospital to fully serve as the clinical training ground for the UDS Medical School and equip a number of district hospitals in the three Northern Regions to serve as satellite clinical training centres for the UDS medical students as they take their turn in the community-based problems solving methodologies.

Professor Awoonor revealed that, government had released an amount of 122,645.69 Ghana Cedis to the UDS for staff capacity building and research.

He said Government had also made available a sum of 209,000 Ghana cedis for the clinical training of medical students of the UDS at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

Prof Awoonor however advised the Graduands to shine as role models in their communities by exhibiting higher standards of professionalism with the creativity and entrepreneurship gained from the UDS.

Dr. Abdulai B. Salifu, Chairman of the UDS Council categorically stated that 5th year students of the university’s school of Medicine and Health Sciences will no longer acquire their clinical training from either the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology or the University for Ghana Medical Schools since the Tamale Teaching Hospital would be provided with the needed resources to accommodate them.

He said plans were advanced to start a Forensic Science Programme at the UDS Navrongo campus since it plays a vital role in the criminal justice system by providing investigators with scientifically based information through the analysis of physical evidence.