The College of Health Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is seeking to raise a sum of $10 million to be invested in making the institution one of the top destinations on the continent.
This, the College of Health Sciences seeks to achieve through the establishment of an Endowment Fund, to upgrade infrastructure, increase the intake of students, fund more research and also provide scholarships for needy but brilliant students.
Amidst the growing population at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, the College of Health Sciences has been losing brilliant students to Western countries.
This is a result of several factors, including the institution’s inability to enrol all the students who apply to the seven faculties of the college.
KNUST College of Health Sciences targets $10 million from Endowment Fund
The Endowment Fund will be used to promote the training of health professionals of high quality, undertake research and investigate local diseases, and also procure essential equipment and tools for research related to graduate training.
At a media soiree held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, the Chairman of the Endowment Fund Board, Prof. Daniel Ansong, said although many people apply to the College of Health Sciences every year, there’s a sharp drop when it comes to the final admissions.
He noted that there was a potential for growth in the intake of students beyond the borders of Ghana, explaining that several students from Togo, Cameroon and Nigeria are unable to be enrolled due to the limited admissions.
Prof. Ansong said these bottlenecks informed the establishment of the Endowment Fund to build infrastructure and improve research to enable the institution to not lose brilliant students to other schools abroad.
Responding to the possibility of churning out more health professionals without ready jobs, Prof. Ansong said he was hopeful that the government’s Agenda 111, which entails building over 100 hospitals across the country, would be completed soon enough to absorb fresh graduates from the various faculties.
“The College wants to establish this Endowment Fund to raise a minimum of $10 million to provide enough facilities and expand resources for us to be able to take more students and train more health professionals for the next generation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the College of Health Sciences has seven faculties, namely; the School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Allied Health Health Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Public Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery and the School of Dentistry.
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