MR. Justice Isaac Duose, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice, has appealed to the government to consider exempting those who privately fund their tertiary education from performing compulsory national service. He said compulsory national service for tertiary students as the National Service Secretariat is trying to enforce presently does not create a level playing field for those paying their fees against those whose fees are paid for by the government. Mr. Justice Duose who made the appeal at the eight matriculation ceremony for Wisconcin International University College in Accra last Saturday said "at best, graduates who fund their own tertiary education may perform voluntary national service". "How can a person who received free tuition and another who did not, be equally subject to compulsory national service," he asked. He said compulsory national service as instituted by the government was based on the premise that "since the government is the sole financier of tertiary education, it then behoves on the government to draw a first benefit from beneficiaries of its largesse.” Mr. Justice Duose said if private students were to be drawn into compulsory national service, "then, I will implore government to establish capitation grants to all students who are in private tertiary colleges. "This is important and will ensure fairness as, this, will make it possible for students in private tertiary institutions to enjoy commensurate free tuition." Dr. Akosua Eghan, Registrar of the university, said the university received 976 applications out of which 530 were registered for various programmes. She said the figure was slightly lower than total admissions for last academic year because of space limitations. "I am pleased, however, to state that a four-storey building is under construction which will provide additional computer laboratories, libraries, and reading rooms as well as lecture rooms to ease the pressure on our facilities,” she added. Dr. Eghan said the university regularly monitored the performance of students and rewarded those whose GPAs were in the first class range. Source: Ghanaian Times