Impressive destinations to study courses secured by students in the Garden City University College’s (GCUC’s) specialisms, including nursing and midwifery, and other health related careers have led to oversubscription.
President of GCUC, Prof Edward K. Asante said the university’s enrolment events have attracted many students who were keen to guarantee their place on one of healthcare courses, leading to midwifery and nursing courses becoming oversubscribed over the past five years.
Addressing the 16th matriculation ceremony of the college, he disclosed that management was compelled to cut down on the number of admission in order to meet the required teacher-students ratio.
Prof. Asante praised the heads of the two departments, Ramatu Agambire and Hajia Halima Opoku Ahmed for making the courses attractive, stressing, “at a point in the admission process, we had to stop admitting nursing students so that we would not go way beyond the recommended student-staff ratio.”
He said when he took over as President of GCUC in 2018 the nursing and midwifery departments had a total of 35 students, but “today, it may interest you to know that we are matriculating 220 and 114 regular students for the Nursing and Midwifery departments respectively.”
“As I have always emphasized, student satisfaction is critical in growing the student numbers in the departments,” he noted and added that despite the challenges facing educational institutions, particularly at the tertiary level, the GCUC was still making strides.
Prof. Asante said the college admitted a total of 1,996 students, and pointed out that this is an astronomical increase to the 579 students who were matriculated in 2018.
“I wish to congratulate all of us, including our alumni and continuing students, who referred many of the freshers to GCUC, for this monumental achievement,” he stated.
He again praised the Director of CODel, Albert Achegilugu and Director of Office of Institutional Advancement (OIA), Isaac Tweneboah-Koduah for their hard work and efforts for the new feet.
Prof. Asante asked the students to know that the lecturers and supporting staff were there to guide them, intimating, “We have put in place measures, programmes and strategies to ensure that every student gets the best academic experience, social experience and personal experience at GCUC.”
“I implore you to make maximum use of the resources and facilities placed at your disposal. You have some of the best lecturers in the country teaching you. Their efforts will be in vain unless you compliment them through hard work and dedication to the purpose of being here,” he urged.
By Ernest Kofi Adu