The Minister of State in charge of tertiary education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, says the government will free private tertiary institutions from policies that fight them as they strive to achieve full university status.

According to Professor Yankah, the stress and difficulties private universities go through will be a thing of the past because government is taking steps to liberate them from the oppression they had suffered for so long.

He was speaking at a send-off party organised for him as former Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Central University (CU) at the New Senate Room, CU.

Professor Yankah observed that the attempt to set the private universities free “was a narrative that started whilst I was VC of the CU, hinting that, “The experiences I went through were the experiences of all private universities in Ghana, and so if I got the opportunity to be there, I should make a move that would be of importance and significance not just to CU but to liberate all private universities from oppression.”

He reiterated government’s commitment to help private tertiary education by its offer a-25%-tax-waiver to private universities “and that waiver is one of the things that started right here when I was VC, and we pursued it vigorously.”

The Chancellor of the CU, Dr. Mensah Otabil, thanked Professor Yankah for his service to the university, saying “he is a man of peace, a gentleman, a man I deeply enjoyed working with.”

He reminisced their work relationship by saying “the plans we hatched, and how we waited through many difficulties in the light of this university, managing important decisions affecting student, faculty, and staff life, and prayed through the frustrating process of acquiring a charter.”

The VC of the CU, Professor Bill Buenar Puplampu, in appreciating the work of the former VC, observed the many achievements Professor Yankah chalked whilst with the CU.

Among other things, he informed of his role in instituting the Distinguish Lecture series that brought some significant people to the CU podium, and the establishment of a Faculty Colloquia which helped galvanized research in the university.

Professor Puplampu also told of Professor Yankah’s role in launching a radio station for the School of Communication Studies of the CU, and overseeing the review of the status of the CU and its human resource situation.

He credited Professor Yankah with the opening of the Kumasi campus of the CU and the construction of a befitting main gate for the Miotso campus and the acquiring of a presidential charter which made the CU an independent institution.

As part of the CU’s appreciation for the work done by Professor Yankah, he was immortalized by naming a block at the Miotso campus after him.