CAPE VARS ADMITS 4,251 (SEPT 21, PAGE 45)

Only 4,251 applicants out of 11,730 qualified candidates were admitted to the University of Cape Coast (UCC) for the 2009/10 academic year.
The number of matriculants is made up of 3,829 undergraduates and 422 postgraduates. Out of the total number of the undergraduates, 1,301, representing 34 per cent, are females, representing an increase of two per cent over last year’s admission of female undergraduates.
The 422 postgraduate students comprised 30 per cent female representation.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, gave the statistics at the matriculation ceremony at UCC last Saturday.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said whilst the undergraduate student intake reduced slightly, the intake for the postgraduates had a healthy increase from last year’s figure of 314 to this year’s 422.
Even though she did not assign any reason for the low intake, it was speculated that the admission might have been guided by lack of lecture theatres, students’ accommodation and other facilities.
She reminded the matriculants of the rules and regulations of the university and the need for a sense of discipline in order to achieve their mission.
The Vice Chancellor advised them not to involve themselves in such reprehensible acts as cyber fraud, drug abuse, robbery and petty thefts.
She said the university would continue to work with the law enforcement agencies to deal drastically with those who might be culpable.
“Work for what you own, the result is peace that cannot be purchased. May it never be said that a student of UCC is involved in any ignoble act,” she cautioned, and asked them to resist the tendency for ethnic, political and religious intolerance.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said coercion was not allowed on the campus, and that what had place on the campus was respect for divergent views and ideologies.
She further advised them to take advantage of the facilities, the numerous programmes and activities on the campus to study diligently to obtain optimum benefits from the university.