Central University President, Professor Bill Buanar Puplampo has debunked claims the school faces a near death as it struggles to provide water, electricity and furniture for classes.
There’s been an assertion on social media that the school once reputed to be among the shinning private tertiary schools has lost its appeal.
Prof. Puplampu submitted for a school or organisation to be in coma nearing death, there are signs to look out for, for which the Central University does not possess.
“Firstly, we are not on the verge of collapse, this business of collapse has been around the social media and underhand media space for quite a while. Really, anybody knows that my inaugural lecture at the University of Ghana three years ago or two years ago, I made it clear that institutions that go down, there are few of four different things to look at: government challenges, technology challenges, people challenges, clientele challenges. We don’t have clientele challenges, we don’t have technology challenges and we don’t have government challenges”.
The University had graduated over 14, 000 students in the last twenty years of its existence he noted, adding it possesses 200 faculty members who were made up of 11 professors with distinguished careers leading the various programmes with over 200 administrative staff and a student population of 7000.
He stressed: “We have the sort of technology other universities have; the online system we use to manage our students is similar to what other universities use. In terms of our clientele, it is instructive to know that at the present time we are the largest private university in Ghana. We have the largest Pharmacy school with 900 students and 25 lecturers. We recently started the Doctor of Pharmacy programme with over 100 students who are doing fine. We have the largest Physician Assistant programme and one of the largest Law programmes in Ghana, and the university is the second and only private institution offering architecture in Ghana.”
He said a university that was about to go down would not have matriculated over 1000 students for the 2018/19 academic year with another 105 students at the Kumasi campus, adding that “this shows we’re firmly on the ground and not about to go down.”
Central University, like any other university, has its challenges and management is fighting to address them, he acknowledged.
Professor Bill Buanar Puplampo also acknowledged Chancellor of the University; Mensa Otabil being chairman of the defunct Capital Bank had triggered the unfounded fear of the school’s collapse stressing the school and defunct bank were two distinct units.
Dr. Mensa Otabil is the founder of Central University as well as the International Central Gospel Church.
Michael Eli Dokosi/goldstreetbusiness.com
