The University of Cape Coast (UCC) College of Distance Education (CoDE) has introduced the Prison Inmates Tertiary Education Programme to enable prison inmates to have access to tertiary education.
The programme which was introduced this academic year (2019/2020) is in collaboration with the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) and Plan Volta Foundation, a non-profit organisation.
This has led to the creation of a study centre at the Nsawam Prisons in the Eastern Region this year, with the centre enrolling a total of 59 inmates to pursue various programmes for the 2019/2020 academic year under the UCC CoDE.
Out of the total of the 59 inmates who were enrolled, 19 are reading Diploma in Commerce (Management Option), eight are pursuing Diploma in Commerce (Accounting option), nine are reading Diploma in Junior High School (JHS) Education (Science & Mathematics Option) and 23 are reading Diploma in JHS Education (English & Social Studies Option).
The Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah made this known in a speech read on his behalf by the Provost of the UCC CoDE, Prof Isaac Galyuon at the matriculation ceremony for students within the Northern Zone of the college at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale on Saturday, December 28, 2019.
He said the programme forms part of the outreach services of the college to grant access to all to pursue tertiary education no matter where they are.
Statistics
Prof Ampiah in his address said the UCC CoDE for the 2019/2020 academic year admitted a total of 13,089 students nationwide into the college to pursue both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Education and Business related programmes by the distance mode.
He said out of the total number of 13,089 students who were admitted, 11,908 are to pursue undergraduate programmes while 1,181 are to pursue post-graduate programmes.
The number of undergraduates offering education programmes is 8,921 and those offering business programmes are 2,988 while for the postgraduate studies, 402 are offering education programme with 779 pursuing business programmes.
Prof. Ampiah stated further that those admitted for the 2019/2020 academic year comprise of 6,566 males (5,934 undergraduates and 632 postgraduates) and 6,523 females (5,974 undergraduates and 549 postgraduate).
The figure he said was an improvement in female enrollment in the college.
“Comparing the admission statistics for this year to last year’s statistics, the percentage of female undergraduates has gone up significantly from 48.3 per cent in 2018/2019 to 50.2 per cent in 2019/2020.”
That, he said, shows a remarkable increase of 1.99 per cent of female population over last year’s increase of 1.5 per cent.
Restructuring of the College
Prof. Ampiah said the college has undergone restructuring by introducing new programmes in Junior High, Primary and Early Childhood Education.
He stated further that the CoDE has initiated processes to enrol programmes from the UCC Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Social Sciences including Bachelor of Science (BSc) Economics and Finance, Master of Science (MSc) Microfinance, MSc Economics, MSc Social Science Data Management and Analysis and MSc Economics of Technology and Development.
Source: Graphic.com.gh.
