Female enrolments into the College of Distance Education (CODE) of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) have increased from 45.9 percent in the 2016/2017 academic to 46.8 percent in 2017/2018, representing 0.9 per cent academic year.
According to the Pro Vice-Chancellor the university, Professor George Oduro, indicated the interest of female education in the country and therefore commended the women for taking advantage of the opportunity offered to improve their academic standard.
This, he said, would also help the women raise their social and financial status for the benefit of their families.
He also commended the male students for the support and encouragement to their women counterparts to pursue higher academic ladder.
The Pro Vice Chancellor said this during the 17th Matriculation of the college in Tamale for students from the northern zone comprising Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.
The CODE admitted a total of 17,182 students to pursue education and business related programmes at both graduate and undergraduate levels for the 2017/2018 academic year.
The figure made up of 15,780 undergraduate and 1,402 post graduates, consisting of 9,234 males and 7,948 females.
He therefore stressed the need for the CoDE to double its efforts to adopt the technology functional to make access to quality education easy for its students.
He noted that many students, especially at the graduate level, were opting for distance learning mode because of its flexibility saying the use of technology would, therefore, enhance the delivery of lectures for students
This according to the Professor Oduro will enable the students participate in academic work irrespective of the location without striving to attain knowledge.
He reiterated that the university is to develop a programme to adapt information and communication technology (ICT) to teaching and learning to promote a hybrid of online and face-to-face courses at the University.
In creating a favorable condition for the students to access quality education with ease, new study centers have been open in Kasoa, Nsawam,Sefwi Juaboso,Nkawie and Ada to make education accessible to those that needed it to execute the development agenda to transform the country he added.
He noted that time is an economic resource and that the need for the students to manage their time well by exhibiting good academic standards to achieve their aim in future.
“As a distance education student, you are expected to be a good time manager since you are confronted with competing social, religious, job and academic demands” he stated.
He stressed that postgraduates programmes in Education CODE has been expanded to include research component while other fourteen existing study centres that were hitherto running only diploma programmes being upgraded to run the post diploma programmes in addition.
Prof Oduro advised the students to take their studies seriously to fulfill the purpose for being admitted into the university.
He assured that the university would continue to render service to many disadvantaged people who yearn to acquire high academic qualification without leaving their jobs.
Some students also appealed to the university management to make frantic efforts to ensure students either being matriculated or graduated in the mother campus.
According to the students most do not even feel the mother campus till completion which they believe is unfair.
