Political Activist, Abdul Salam has proposed some solutions to the University of Ghana’s ongoing accommodation crisis.
For years, the university has been facing a major challenge in providing adequate accommodation for its students posing a great difficulty for students from far and near to look for accommodation on their own.
In an interview on Campus Exclusive, Abdul Salam Mohammad suggested the implementation of off-campus accommodation.
He said that the university should probe into hostels around the university’s campus to help accommodate students. Abdul added that the management should fix an agreement with such hostels and reduce the standards they give to private hostels who are willing to offer space.
“I had always advocated for three things. The first one is that we were looking into off campus accommodation, partnering with hostels around the university to ensure that if they can meet the accommodation standards, we can get an agreement with them so they can accommodate the students….with our engagement with most of the hostels it’s like the standards the university were giving them were too high and they could not meet it.“
Abdul Salam also called on the University of Ghana’s management to review their policies regarding leasing of land to private companies.
He believes that allowing private companies to invest in university land could help provide students with much-needed hostel accommodation.
By doing so, the university would be taking a proactive step towards addressing the current accommodation crisis faced by many students.
“We need to review the university statutes when it comes to leasing of lands for private cooperations or private companies for investment. I have not seen any private company come in, get a land to develop accommodation facility….[the University] should be able to review the university statutes, especially the grand architecture…. they must find a way to tweak the grand architecture a bit so that it will fit modern standards or be more flexible for businesses and cooperations.”
Abdul Salam also recommended to the University to cut down on admissions and develop a system where admissions come with accommodation.
He believes this will help drastically reduce the accommodation issues that many students face on campus.
“The University should cut down on the admissions. It is a radical solution that I always propose… in the cutting down the admissions, they should develop the older system where admissions come with accommodations. The country is divided into regions. They should be able to sample the regions to students who are coming from far away. If the University is able to do that and drastically cut down on admissions, I’m sure we’re going to solve this problem. “
He believes this will help drastically reduce the accommodation issues that many students face on campus.
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Story by: Henrietta Owusua | univers.ug.edu.gh