Out of a total of 6,897 qualified applicants admitted to various degree and diploma programmes, only 3,136 of them have reported.

At the 24th matriculation ceremony at the Navrongo Campus of the UDS, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye, said the Tamale and  Nyankpala Campuses in the Northern Region admitted 935 and 305 students, respectively, while the Navrongo Campus in the Upper East Region admitted 344 students and the Wa Campus in the Upper West Region also admitted 1,552.

He indicated that this year's admission of students to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery saw a significant decrease.

"The yearly intake for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programmes consistently hovered around 100 students each year. The reduction in the number of students admitted for the 2016/2017 academic year was necessitated by a change in the duration of the medical programme from seven to six years."

This decision, the vice chancellor said, was taken by the Academic Board of the university to enable the School of Medicine and Health Sciences to run a conventional medical programme as is done in other medical schools in Ghana and other countries.

New programmes

Professor Teye said the university established a School of Engineering at the Nyankpala Campus last year to fulfil the resolve of management to expand the programmes of the university and the first batch of students had been admitted this academic year to pursue degree programmes in Mechanical and Agricultural Engineering.

He indicated that the Faculty of Renewal Natural Resources had been rebranded and renamed the Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment which would have six academic departments to run various undergraduate programmes.

Hostels

He announced that the construction of the Ghana Universities Superannuation Scheme (GUSS) hostel on the Tamale Campus was almost completed and students had been allocated rooms.

The hostel contains 254 rooms, with a capacity intake of 694 students, and comes with ultra-modern facilities such as a pharmacy, shopping mall and laundry.

He said the completion of the hostel would reduce the accommodation challenges at the Tamale Campus and called on interested investors to partner the university to put up more hostel facilities on the various campuses.

He said the university had also made efforts to provide clinics on all the campuses, except Tamale.

 Fresh students.

The vice chancellor advised the students to set their priorities right and make sure they obtained their degrees and diplomas at the end of their studies.

"I wish to remind you that the ultimate reason why you have enrolled in the university as students is to obtain your degrees or diplomas at the end of your chosen programme".

"There is total freedom in university education; nobody will tell you what to do because you are considered mature persons. The feedback from your examination results at the end of the trimester or academic year will determine your continuous stay as students in this university", he concluded.