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Private universities in the country have resolved to increase the basic salary of lecturers by 20 per cent this year, the Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic University of Ghana (CUG), Professor Daniels Obeng-Ofori, has disclosed.
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He said the universities had also planned to enhance the book and research allowances to make it more attractive for lecturers, particularly PhD holders. Prof. Obeng-Ofori said the increment in the basic salary as well as book and research allowances for lecturers was aimed at attracting and retaining lecturers at private universities.
He revealed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality in the Bono Region. Throwing more light on the decision, Prof Obeng-Ofori explained that he and other VCs had been having meetings even though not under any association.
He explained that, it was through those meetings that they planned to make the increment to halt lecturers, especially senior lecturers declining to teach in private universities.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori bemoaned lecturers’ refusal to stay and teach in private universities after they had been sponsored by the institutions to obtain a PhD.
He explained that the refusal of the lecturers to teach in the universities remains a major challenge. Prof. Obeng-Ofori attributed the situation to low basic salaries and book and research allowances or poor conditions of service offered to them by the private institutions.
"Sometimes, we sponsor the training of lecturers to obtain PhDs and they later abandon us to join public universities for better conditions of services," he explained.
He said the universities would require more funding to ensure a smooth increment of the basic salary and expressed the need for the universities to work hard to increase student enrollment.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori encouraged the lecturers to publish more to enable them to be promoted to senior lecturers and professors. He explained that the only way they could be promoted to senior lecturers and professors was to do more publications.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori said the universities would continue to provide them with incentives and motivate them to publish more research work. "Very soon, without a PhD, you cannot teach in any tertiary institution. We are strongly supporting the lecturers with Master’s degrees to enrol in PhD programmes.
"Currently, CUG has about 16 lecturers with Master’s degrees, who have been enrolled in PhD programmes at the various stages of communication," he said.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori said lecturers with Master’s degrees had only two years to enrol in PhD programmes after their appointment. He cautioned that their appointments would be terminated if they failed to upgrade themselves within the two years of their appointment.
On hostels, Prof. Obeng-Ofori said the CUG needed more hostel facilities to accommodate the increasing number of students. He said the current university hostel facilities were woefully inadequate to absorb the students.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori explained that most of the students relied on individual hostels for accommodation, adding that the individual hostels were costly, putting extra financial burden on the students.
Prof. Obeng-Ofori called on private developers to partner with the university to complete some ongoing hostel facilities to reduce the accommodation deficit.
