UPSA admits over 5,000 freshmen
The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) over the weekend matriculated 5, 957 freshmen to pursue various degree, professional and diploma programmes for the 2019/2020 academic year.
The number of new entrants, which is the highest ever in the history of the University is made of 80 professional programmes’ students, 1, 122 diploma students, 4, 059 undergraduate students and 696 postgraduate students.
The 80 professional programmes’ students consist of 50 males and 30 females; whereas the 1,122 diploma students were made up of 533 males and 589 females.
For the 4,059 undergraduate registered students, 2,175 are males and 1,884 are females, while the 696 post graduate registered fresh students comprised 408 males and 288 females.
Professor Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, the Vice-Chancellor, UPSA, said due to the hike in student population, management has decided to embark on two major students’ hostel projects to ease the students’ accommodation problem.
“One 10-storey facility will be developed on the land adjoining the existing students’ hostel and another 10-storey facility will be constructed on the newly acquired land adjacent to ideal college,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor said the new entrants would pursue both academic degrees and professional qualifications simultaneously.
He said professional programmes such as Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and Chartered Governance Institute (ICSA) would be tuition-free for any qualification of the student’s choice.
“The objective of this is to prepare UPSA students with both academic degrees and professional qualifications upon completion. We believe this will give UPSA students the edge over graduates from other universities in the competitive job market,” Prof Amartey said.
“To actualize this policy, management has decided to make free tuition for professional programmes like ACCA, ICAG, CIM, CIMA and ICSA compulsory for all corresponding degree programmes. To this end, provision has been made for professional programmes courses on the First Semester 2019/2020 teaching timetables for the majority of our degree programmes.”
Prof Amartey, who advised the students to take their studies very seriously, also charged them to shy away from sexual immorality, which might lead them into contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
He said in recent times, there had been troubling unconfirmed reports from some university campuses of an upsurge in cases of STIs including HIV/AIDS amongst students.
“It is the reason why you need to take good care of yourself so that you do not add to the statistics. Let the following catch words for HIV/AIDS prevention ring constantly in your mind; abstinence, be faithful, and use a condom,” he said.
Dr Kofi Ohene Konadu, Chairman Council, UPSA, urged the matriculants to pursue excellence in their academic work.
“You can achieve this by striking the right balance between academic work and other social extra curricula activities. Make sure you don’t lose sight of your main aim of coming to UPSA,” he said.
“Management of the University will on its part do what they can to make your studies here a very memorable experience by providing the resources and facilities for your academic work,” he added.
Source: GNA