Pastor Dr Seth Abang Laryea, Immediate Past President of the Valley View University (VVU), on Sunday urged government to consider enlisting private tertiary institutions as beneficiaries of the GETFund.
This, he said, would help reduce the financial burden on private tertiary institutions and enable them to improve upon facilities and
infrastructure.
"We will be happy if government could allocate to private institutions some amount of money from the GETFund for infrastructural development," Dr Laryea said during a send-off service organised for him by the University.
He noted that there was a lot of pressure on the fees charged by private institutions as they were used for all activities including
infrastructural development and salaries.
Dr Laryea expressed his appreciation to all who worked with him in his quest to transform VVU when he took over the administration of the
University 18 years ago and urged the students to uphold Christian virtues and the virtues of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
He said although being at the helm of affairs at the VVU had not been easy, he was happy about the successes the University had chalked, including a remarkable improvement in students' enrolment, which had shot up from
eight in 1992 to over 3,000 in 2010.
"We thank God for allowing challenges to come our way, for without them, there would not be successes," he added.
Professor Daniel Bour, the new Vice Chancellor of VVU, was full of praise for Dr Laryea for his contribution to the growth of Adventist Education in the country, his humility, dedication and perseverance.
"Out of the 31 years of Valley View University's existence, Dr Laryea is the longest serving Chief Executive Officer with 18 years of service without break," Prof. Bour said. "We wonder if anyone can break this record in future."
"He has no doubt left for generations of CEOs to come a legacy of leadership, perseverance, commitment, respect for educational heritage and service," he said.
Some of the achievements of Dr Laryea include the attainment of accreditation in 1997, a Presidential Charter in 2006, affiliation with
several foreign universities, the construction of a permanent campus for the University at Oyibi and the opening of the University's Techiman campus.
In 2007, Dr Laryea became the first recipient for the National Honours Awards (Officer of the Volta - Private Higher Education category).
Items presented to Dr Laryea included a car, a laptop, cash and citations.