Valley View University fell short of its admission target by about five per cent for the 2015/16 academic year.

The low enrollment comes at a time when school authorities are introducing twelve new programs.

Officials are unsure what accounts for the development but say they are adopting various strategies to address the shortfall.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Daniel Bediako, revealed this at the 2016 graduation at Techiman in the Bono Ahafo Region.

The University currently runs 28 academic programs and authorities say they are introducing 12 new ones.

They include Bachelor of Science in Midwifery, Mental Health Nursing, Natural Resource and Environmental Management, among others.

The University has three campuses in Kumasi, Techiman and Oyibi in Accra.

Last year, 9,614 students were admitted, dropping from 10,114 the previous year. About a quarter of the current student population is Adventist.Sandwich students constitute over 50 percent of all students; a consistent trend since 2013.

At the Techiman Campus, for instance, there are rare figures of regular and distance education.

Professor Bediako told a graduation ceremony for 1,250 students steps are being taken to improve student intake.

The total enrollment for 2015/16 academic year for the Techiman campus stood at 3,664 against previous year’s 3,832.

Acting Rector, Dr Peter Agyekum Boateng, reveal of vigorous recruitment activities coordinated by the faculty.

“Both regular and distance education modes have the lowest percentages, and clearly, indicate that our focus on increasing enrollment in these areas should be intensified,” Dr Boateng.

One of them is the Ambassadorial Enrollment Campaign, spearheaded by a Promotion Drive Committee.

“Chair, this decline has challenged all teaching and non-teaching staff of this campus into various recruitment strategies. The most current and notable of all these activities is the Ambassadorial Enrollment Strategy which has been initiated and coordinated by the faculty of Techiman campus,” he stressed.

On infrastructure development at the Techiman campus, Dr. Agyekum revealed construction of a 4-storey 1,200-capacity Men’s hall of residence is progressing steadily with ground floor nearing completion while the first phase of an 8-unit block to accommodate faculty members on campus is ongoing.

He announced that the newly commissioned Valley View Adventist Hospital is expected to start operations in August.

But despite challenges, Valley View University has made tremendous progress.

Faculty members published 143 peer reviewed-papers in 2014, an increase of 16 per cent of previous year’s figures.

The University’s nursing students recorded 98 per cent passes in 2015 Nursing Licensing Examinations.

A number of student projects from the Computer Science and Information Technology department have been selected for Africa Mobile and ICT Expo 2016.

Two graduates, Benjamin Sarpaning and Sebastian Shamo emerged first and third respectively in software development competition organized by the Ghana Multimedia Incubation Center.

Another, Eric Genyoh received an award at the 2015 National Best Teacher’s Award in the Basic Maths/Science category.