Garden City University presents presidential charter to Asantehene
The Garden City University at Kenyasi in Kumasi has presented its presidential charter to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi for his support leading to the realisation of a fully-fledged university status.
This was when the management of the University paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene during the first Awukudea of the year.
The university was one of the 14 universities that were granted a presidential charter by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December 2024.
With the presidential charter, the university would from hence issue its certificate and would no longer seek the approval of their mentoring universities before mounting new programmes.
The founder of the GCU, Albert Acquah, said the University owed its success to the support of the Asantehene and therefore, said it was just appropriate that the management presented the charter to him as a way of saying “thank you for the support.”
He said Otumfuo was very instrumental in the growth of the university and in settling some of the land litigations that the university has been involved in.
Mr Acquah said the acquisition of the presidential charter presented an opportunity for GCU to grow and mount more programmes to develop the communities.
The university college, prior to acquiring its autonomous certificate, was affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
“There are some courses we identified but couldn’t run, and that has hindered our growth over the past years,” he said.
He said being independent was very crucial to the continuous growth of the university and also in meeting the needs of the country.
“We have ideas to offer certain programmes, like speech and communication disorders, a new programme to help our children,” he said.
GCU was initially established as the College of Information Technology and Management Systems in 2001 and was converted into a university college affiliated to KNUST in 2004.
Mr Acquah said the university had over the years carved a niche for itself in the training of health professionals in the Ashanti Region and in the country.
Some of the courses offered by GCU included Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Nursing and MPhil in Midwifery, Bachelor of Science in Dental Therapy, Bachelor of Science in Physician Assistantship Studies and Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Midwifery.
According to him, aside from health programmes, the GCU also runs business courses such as Accounting with Computing, Accounting, Banking and Finance, Marketing and Human Resource Management among others.
FROM TIMES REPORTER, KUMASI
