Ghana is one of the countries in Africa that has a highly reliable and respected education system, especially, her tertiary education system. According to the National Accreditation Board, the oversight body that grants tertiary institutions licence to operate, Ghana has 10 public universities, as well as top notch international business schools.
Most of these universities have high representation of foreign nationals, an attestation to the fact that public universities in Ghana have high educational standards that attract people from all walks of life to pursue their higher learning in the country.
So tenants of Green Views who are in the country with their families must rest assure that their children can have quality education in Ghana.
In this article, we take a look at just five of these universities and what makes them the best in the country.
University of Ghana, Legon (UG)
University of Ghana
Known as Ghana’s premier university, it was founded in 1948 in the British colony of the Gold Coast as the University College of the Gold Coast which was an affiliate of the University of London. It gained full university status in 1961 and now has nearly 40,000 students.
The university has since grown to become one of the country’s best and coveted institutions of higher learning. The university in 2014, out-doored a new strategic plan aimed at distinguishing itself in the area of research to make an impact at the national and international level.
This new strategic plan (2014-2024) is intended to consolidate the gains made from the review of the University’s mission and practices and situate these within the context of a very dynamic environment of higher education in Ghana and beyond.
University of Ghana is run on a collegiate system and comprises the following colleges: College of Basic and Applied Sciences; College of Education; College of Health Sciences; and College of Humanities.
Again, the University has several research institutions and centers for learning and research, including Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIR); Centre for Tropical, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; Regional Institute for Population Studies; Institute for Environmental and Sanitation Studies; and the Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research.
The university is endowed with very nice physical infrastructure and its international students come from over 70 countries. It is one of most beautiful universities of Ghana.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was officially opened for admission in January 1952 as the Kumasi College of Technology. In 1961, the college was transformed into a full-fledged university with the name University of Science and Technology (UST). However, in 1998, it was renamed after Ghana’s first president by an Act of Parliament as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi.
The university’s core vision is to be a centre of excellence in Africa for teaching in science and technology for development; producing high caliber graduates with knowledge and expertise to support the industrial and socio-economic development of Ghana and Africa.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
The university has six colleges namely: College of Science; College of Engineering; College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; College of Arts and Built Environment; College of Health Sciences; and College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Department programmes include undergraduate, postgraduate, school of graduate studies, and institute of distance learning.
The KNUST is also respected for its nice landscape and keeping a beautiful university environment that encourages learning.
University of Cape Coast
Located in the historic city of Cape Coast, the capital of the Central Region of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast is one of Ghana’s celebrated universities. It was established in October 1962 as a college.
The university is the only in Ghana that blends education with non-education programmes. Approximately 40% of students are admitted into the Faculty of Education to pursue Bachelor of Education programmes qualifying as professional teachers, and the rest into non-education programmes in the other Faculties.
University Of Cape Coast (UCC)
Presently, the University has restructured its degree programmes by de-coupling the study of professional education courses from the main degree course. The University is organised into five (5) Colleges and fourteen (14) Faculties/Schools headed by Provosts and Deans respectively.
The five colleges are Agriculture and Natural Science; Distance Education; Education Studies; Health and Allied Sciences; Humanities and Legal Studies.
The University offers undergraduate, postgraduate, distance education, international, and sandwich programmes.
It has gained the reputation of churning out some of the best teachers we have in the country.
University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA)
Formerly known as the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), it is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, growing universities in Ghana. It was founded in 1965 as a private professional business education tuition provider but was subsequently taken over by government in 1978.
University of Professional Studies-Accra(UPSA)
It was subsequently established as a tertiary institution with a mandate to provide tertiary and professional education in Accountancy, Management and other related areas of study.
In September 2005, the then institute introduced bachelor’s degree programmes. It received a Presidential Charter in September 2008, conferring on it the status of a fully-fledged public university.
In 2016, the university launched a new initiative to connect final year students to industry professionals in a classroom setting. The programme was created in response to Ghana’s growing disparity between tertiary education and job market needs.
The UPSA experience is tailor-made to give students a giant leap ahead of their peers. The university’s relatively small population of over 11, 000 also allows greater access and personalised attention from faculty and staff.
The UPSA has the reputation of producing some of the finest and renowned accountants and auditors of in Ghana.
University of Mines and Technology
The University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) is located in Tarkwa, Western Region, the centre of mining activities in Ghana. It started as the Tarkwa Technical Institute (TTI) in November 1952. In 1961, the Government, upon the advocacy of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, redefined the mission of TTI to incorporate the training of mining technicians and other middle level manpower for the country’s mining and related industries.
The move was necessary considering that Ghana is rich in mineral resources like gold, diamond, bauxite, among others. In 1961, it was reorganized to become the Tarkwa School of Mines (TSM) to train the required manpower for the mining and allied industries in Ghana.
University of Mines and Technology
In November 2004, the school was given a presidential accent to become the University of Mines and Technology.
The progammes the university offers can be grouped into three, namely: Minerals Resource Technology, Engineering, and Integrated Management Studies.
Under Minerals Resource Technology, courses offered include Geomatics Engineering, Geological Engineering, Mining Engineering, Minerals Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, and Environmental and Safety Engineering.
Under Engineering programme, there are Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics.
And with Integrated Management Studies, there are Technical Communications and Management Studies.
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