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General News of Sunday, February 10, 2019
Source: thebftonline.com
2019-02-10
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The number of students enrolled in private higher education institutions (TEIs), including universities, colleges and specialized institutions, has declined significantly over the past five years.
The situation now threatens the survival of private higher education institutions in the country, many of them having difficulty coping with their overhead costs.
B & FT's badysis of the number of students enrolled in private higher education institutions in the last five academic years, according to the 2018 Higher Education Sector report, showed that enrollments at all levels of levels – with the exception of the doctorate – had decreased over the last five years.
For example, the number of master's enrollments (excluding research) has decreased since 2013/14. The number of undergraduate enrollments, by contrast, increased from 63,811 to 62,628.
The master's degree in research has also grown from 152 students to 123 students, the report said.
The number of enrollments in the postgraduate degree in recent years shows fluctuations, but the number of student enrollments has reached its lowest level in 2016.
Recently, private higher education officials have stated that the establishment of satellite campuses across the country by public universities has a negative impact on private universities.
According to them, this created a situation in which potential candidates choose to register on the satellite campus of a public university rather than in a private university.
However, recent developments have prompted some educators to ask private TEIs to merge in order to remain competitive and stay in business.
As is happening in the banking sector, private educational institutions should merge to create more powerful and world-clbad higher education institutions.
Cause of collapse; competition or cost of fees?
To the extent that private higher education institutions face fierce competition from their public counterparts, there is another school of thought in which the cost of private education in the country is very high.
The fees charged each semester by private universities represent about half of what public universities charge for a whole year, which facilitates their access.
However, in order to make private education less expensive in the country, in 2017 the government abolished the 25% corporate tax applied to private universities.
The Minister of Education in charge of the Tertiary, Professor Kwasi Yankah, reportedly said that the 25% tax deterred private universities from investing any surplus in growth and innovation.
"This stifles additional investment in education and prevents private universities from avoiding tuition increases. Indeed, the impression that private universities are expensive is partly due to a nuisance tax as well as costly accreditation processes, the results of which are then pbaded on to students, "he said. he declared.
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