The University has held a matriculation ceremony for  the College of Distance Education (CoDE) fresh students from the Southern Zone at the Congregation grounds.

Distance students from the Southern Zone comprising the Central and Western Regions converged at UCC campus for the ceremony.

Addressing the Matriculants, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said a total of 17, 182 students were admitted to pursue various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes through distance mode.  Out of the total figure, he explained that 15, 780 were undergraduate students whilst   1, 402 were postgraduate students. 

“The percentage for undergraduate admission is 53.2% for males and 46.8% for females. The number of undergraduate students offering Education programmes is 11, 414, and Business programmes is 4, 366. For the Postgraduate programmes, we have 518 offering Education and 884 offering Business related programmes,” the Vice-Chancellor noted.

The Vice-Chancellor said there has been a remarkable increase of 0.9 percentage points over last year’s figure indicating that “this year’s admission statistics of undergraduate students indicates that the percentage of women who have entered the University through the distance mode has gone up from 45.9% in the 2016/2017 academic year to 46.8%”. He seized the opportunity to congratulate the women for taking advantage of the distance education programmes offered by UCC to improve on their academic standing and to raise their social and financial status for the benefit of their families.

Prof. Ampiah indicated that the it had now become increasingly evident that more students were now opting for the masters’ programme in distance education because of its convenience and suitability for the working class.  “The College of Distance Education is, therefore, urged to double its efforts at making technology functional in the delivery of lecturers so that our clients could sit in the comfort of their homes and obtain their degrees. By this, we would have rendered a great service to many disadvantaged people who yearn to acquire high academic qualifications”.

He said CoDE was making efforts to bring their study centres to their doorstep.  “The College has therefore, opened five new study centres in Kasoa, Nsawam, Sefwi Juaboso, Nkawie and Ada. Fourteen (14) existing study centre that were hitherto running only diploma programmes have also been upgraded to run the post diploma programmes in addition.” The Vice-Chancellor said their admission to the UCC distance programme demanded a lot of sacrifices in terms of financial, social disengagements and realignment of their priorities to stay focused on their studies and be successful in the end. He advised them to make every effort to be regular and punctual to face-to-face sessions to complement their private studies.   Earlier, students were taken through orientation by some officials of the University, executives of Distance Education Students Association of Ghana (DESAG) and officials from the Students’ Loan Trust. Some of the issues they spoke about were Students’ support systems, presented during the orientation included rules and regulation for students, financial obligations of students, academic regulations and students loan.

Similar ceremonies would be held in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale for the other zones.

Present at the ceremony was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro; Registrar, Mr. Kofi Nyan; Provost of CoDE, Prof. Isaac Galyuon; Provost of the College of College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. L. K. Sam-Amoah; Provost, College of Humanities & Legal Studies, Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh;  Dean of Students, Prof. Koawo Edjah. Also in attendance were some Deans, Heads of Department, Central and Western Regional Resident Tutors, Centre Coordinators and Lecturers of UCC.