CENTRALISED APPLICATION PROCESS FOR UNIVERISTY APPLICANTS

The Director General of Ghana Tertiary Education commission (GTEC) Professor Mohammed Salifu, has disclosed that every student applying to any university in the country will do so through a single platform called the Centralized Applications Processing Service (CAPS). The arrangement is expected to start from 2023/2024 academic year admission to both public and private universities.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, he stated that the commission was currently working with all stakeholders to ensure that the portal was up and running for the 2023/2024 academic year. Prof. Salifu indicated that GTEC had already met with all vice chancellors and chancellors in the country and other relevant stakeholders on the development and was currently working with a consultant on the various technical issues. He said CAPS is one of the key reforms of the tertiary educational sector which started in 2017 as part of the tertiary education policy. It was perceived as the university version of the Computerized Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). However, unlike the school’s placement system for senior high schools, CAPS, the universities would retain full control of the admission processes he said. “They will continue to make decisions as to which students to admit into which programs, subject to the national minimum entry requirements and institution-specific departmental requirements”, the Director General explained.

On a point that bordered on the prospects of the CAPS, Prof. Salifu explained that, in relations to recent developments, when finally implemented, the portal would resolve the issue of unaccredited programmes, since no unaccredited institution or programme would be allowed on the portal. “If we set up the portal, it will resolve this once and for all because every University that would be on the portal and the programmes it offers shall be accredited”, he explained. He added that since students must visit the portal to apply, “there will be no risk of applying into programmes that have no accreditation”. “So, in addition to all the good reasons, CAPS is necessary, this is another reason we need it. It will be an affective way of curbing unaccredited institutions or programmes”, he explained. Among other things, he said it will simplify and make the process of applying for admissions to universities more convenient and affordable to prospective applicant, while providing a treasure trove of data in real time for monitoring policy implementation.

He recalled that, when the issue first came up, the then minister of state in charge of tertiary education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, had led the vice chancellors of public universities and their registrars to the United Kingdom (UK) at the instance of the association of commonwealth Universities (ACU). The visit, he said was to enable the delegation to learn best practices in the U.K, which run a similar system known as the Universities and Colleges admissions service (UCAS). “When we came back, we designed the framework from the original concept note, and an implementation committee, sheered by Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, a former VC of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) was put in place to drive the process”, he said.

Prof. Salifu also indicated that, extensive stakeholder consultations followed and an implementation plan was designed. “But the only issue that held us back from implementing it was that we needed a budget line from the ministry of finance and that delayed us a little”, he explained. He said last year, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) agreed to absorb the budget into the formular and, therefore committed the funds for the project. The Director General further explained that the implementation committee had recently met the VCs to apprise them of the latest development, considering that some of the original cohort engaged at the initial stage have since retired. Some concerns, he said, where raised about the application fees sharing formula, among others, which concerns GTEC and Ministry of Education were very amendable to incorporating in the implementation plan. Prof. Salifu added that, the implementation committee assured the VCs that they will have full control of admissions because, “no one will seat at the CAPS secretariat and post students to the universities”. He explained that the universities will be the one to decide who would be admitted to what program subject to minimum requirements. “So, nothing will change in terms of decision making. They will take the decision, except that there will be better checks and balances in managing the process. He was confident that the portal would be a useful platform for private universities to advertise themselves and their programmes and improve their overall visibility. “Being on the platform would give private university visibility and recognition because only institutions that are credible and legitimate will be on it”.

On the advantages of the portal, Prof. Salifu further explained that with one access code, an applicant could apply to three universities at the same time and be able to choose three programmes in each university. The process, he said, would be such that if a qualified candidate applied and was not picked in the first instance, he or she could take advantage of a special arrangement called the “CAPS Mall”, which would operate like a shopping mall. “At the mall will be all students who were not picked and universities still looking for students. Alternatively, applicants who get offers from the universities but do not like the programmes offered them can go to the mall to search for their preferred programmes in different universities”, he said. Prof. Salifu said he believed CAPS would be a major game changer in facilitating university admissions and easing access to prospective applicants.

He acknowledged the heightened interest already shown by private universities and the smaller and growing public universities in particular and urged all to support the initiative for its successful implementation.