It, therefore, urged the government to stop granting permission for the establishment of new traditional universities in the country.

The President and Founder of the university, Rev. Dr Samuel Donkor, who made the appeal, said, what the country needed now was well-trained graduates who were equipped to support the national development agenda.

He was speaking when members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education visited the university.

The delegation, which was led by the Chairman of the committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Akatsi North, was to ascertain the challenges facing the university to help to address such challenges.

Rev. Dr Donkor, who also suggested that both public and private universities be regulated by a common law and one policy, indicated that because public universities were not bound by the same rules as private universities, they normally did whatever seemed fit to them.

In view of that, Rev. Dr Donkor indicated that public universities admitted everyone who applied to them, using their centres across the country to swell their environment, as well as long-distance education programmes to generate more income without regard for quality.

With regards to funding, the president of the ANU suggested that the government should financially support the ANU to enable it to continue with its space research and other programmes, which he said were of tremendous benefit to the country and Africa as a whole.

He said that although the ANU spent over $500,000 to train young Ghanaians in Space Sub-Systems Engineering, who designed and built the Satellite (GhanaSat1), the lack of additional funding was hindering its progress.

Rev. Dr Donkor said while Ghana was basking in the honour, glory and the international prestige that came with the successful launch of GhanaSat1, “parliament and the government gave a cold shoulder to the institution and the young engineers who accomplished such a feat,” which has been celebrated globally by all forward looking countries.

He said the ANU's Space Systems Technology Laboratory (SSTL) also hosted a National Auronatic and Space Administration (NASA) -- Sponsored Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) monitoring instruments, which were used to collect atmospheric data in Koforidua and that such facilities provided invaluable data for research on climate and environmental conditions.

Rev. Dr Donkor, who stated that the ANU was partnering other African countries to develop an African Satellite that could not be continued without government support to the university to fulfil Ghana's role in that project.

Dilating further on the issue, Rev. Dr Donkor indicated that by addressing the challenges of the university, Parliament and the government would not be granting the university a special favour, but rather would be unleashing the full potential of Ghana’s higher education system for the benefit of all.

He added that the ANU was not in competition with public universities but rather complemented the efforts of public universities to absorb the growing demand for tertiary education.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Nortsu-Kotoe, said that because the ANU had made a lot of progress in the area of scientific research and development, the government would not hesitate to support it to be on its feet.

He explained that since private universities were also dear to the government, they would also be supported to improve the quality of education in the country.

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