WENCHI CAMPUS OF METHODIST UNIVERSITY MAKES IMPACT (PAGE 20)

SINCE the arrival of the Wesleyan Mission Society in Ghana in 1835, the Methodist Church has been actively involved in the provision and development of high quality education at the basic and senior high school levels as well as teacher training colleges.
Generally, the role of churches, including the Methodist Church of Ghana, in the provision of education up to the training of teachers nationwide, was limited in 1961 under the then educational reform programme.
That was the time the then government decided to be responsible for the running of mission schools and training colleges in the country.
The government also established more senior secondary schools and teacher training colleges and some public universities.
Currently, the country can boast of six state universities, namely the University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), University of Education, Winneba (UEW) with satellite campuses at Tanoso in Kumasi and Asante-Mampong, the University for Development Studies (UDS) at Tamale with campuses at Navrongo and Wa as well as the University of Mines and Technology at Tarkwa.
Even with the existence of those six state tertiary educational institutions of higher learning, people have raised serious concerns about their inadequacy and the fact that the facilities could not cater for qualified candidates to access the opportunity for higher academic education.
 It is against this background that the authorities of the Methodist Church of Ghana, convinced themselves that with the unique record and experience in the provision of education at the first and second cycle as well as the teacher education levels, the church could make a contribution to the solution of filling the yawning gap.
  Consequently, at the church’s 36th annual conference at Cape Coast in 1997, the delegates decided to establish a Methodist University College.
After going through the necessary preparations and processes, the Methodist University College of Ghana (MUCG) was born and duly recognised by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) in August, 2000.
Subsequently, its application for affiliation to the University of Ghana was approved in October, 2002.
Academic work began in October, 2000 and the first batch of students reported for lectures in November, 2000 while the second batch reported in October, the following year. Now, the MUCG is in its ninth academic year.
Location
 The main campus of the MUCG is situated on a 12-hectare piece of land at the southern end of the Wesley Grammar Senior High School compound at Dansoman in Accra with two other campuses at Tema and Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region.
There are also plans to establish some more satellite campuses in other places in due course.
Vision and mission
As all institutional establishments have their foresight, the MUCG has a long-term programme “to promote and develop academic excellence, spirituality, morality and service with the Ghanaian society, through teaching and research”.
The university is to impart knowledge and skills in discipline to mould the students mentally, physically and spiritually on the basis of Christian principles.
Aims and objectives
The MUCG seeks to provide facilities for learning and offer the students liberal education, bearing in mind the manpower needs of the country, among other desires.
Student population
The current student population is 3,688 comprising 1,874 males and 1,814 females who are pursing programmes in business administration, social studies, arts and general studies as well as agriculture.
This write-up is being limited to the faculty of agriculture which is at the Wenchi campus. It runs bachelor of science degree and diploma in general agriculture programmes as well as horticulture and certificate programmes in horticulture, agro-processing and agribusiness.
Recently, the Wenchi campus held its third matriculation and the second congregation during which a total of 15 students were formally admitted to the faculty while six past students were presented at the ceremony.
The ceremony was poorly patronised by the people of Wenchi, the immediate beneficiaries of the products of the faculty, even though the authorities had extended invitation to a wide range of personalities, including resident and non-resident citizens of the town.
The Principal of the MUCG, Very Rev. Prof. Samuel Kwesi Adjepong, highlighted the fact that “The Agriculture programme at the campus is designed in such a way that it is a hands-on field based programme which produces graduate agriculturists who first and foremost are farmers and secondly are entrepreneurs”.
He was, however, quick to add that, “MUCG Wenchi campus, has continued to be actively involved in community service”.
Rev. Prof. Adjepong further stated that the aims of the faculty were to prepare students to engage in farming as a business, to prepare them to manage agricultural enterprises and related industries, to develop the student’s ability to think critically and to develop the highest ethical and human values and excellent aesthetic taste.
He added that the faculty was also to provide students with the best academic, professional and practical training, including the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.
According to Rev. Prof. Adjepong, the faculty developed additional 10 hectares of land in 2008, bringing the total area of mechanised land at Wenchi to 34 hectares, adding that, the faculty had also acquired four tractors in 2008 and other farming implements to strengthen the faculty’s agricultural mechanisation programme.
The Presiding Bishop of the Church, Most Rev. Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, observed in a speech read on his behalf, that “This fledgling satellite campus of MUCG, which is just about two years old, has started producing very impressive results, both in theory and practice.”
He said “The theoretical knowledge acquired by our students in the lecture halls are being applied on our farms here at the Wenchi Campus, leading to great harvests and improved quality crops. The Agro Processing Unit of the faculty has been able to process mango juices for sale. Our Agribusiness Unit has been able to come up with the idea of packaging the well-known Moringa into tea bags for sale”.
With those results, one would expect that the head of the Methodist Church would fulfil his promise that the Methodist Church would continue to support the MUCG in all its endeavours.
Dr David Mensah, the Executive Director of Northern Empowerment Association, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), who was the guest speaker for the ceremony, observed that, there was food deficits in many areas in Ghana in particular and Africa as a whole.
Dr Mensah, who is also the acting President of the Mo Traditional Area in the Brong Ahafo Region under the stool name Nana Tibarakala, stressed, “We do not produce adequate fish to feed the nation and we are not able to produce enough tomatoes to keep our few canneries going and rather import tomatoes from Burkina Faso as well as canned tomato paste from all over the world.