UG Student Financial Aid Office receives GHC23,000 scholarship from Ernst and Young

The Student Financial Aid Office, University of Ghana, has received GHC23,493.00 from Ernst and Young Ghana (EY Ghana), a multinational company that is into assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.

The money is expected to be given out as scholarship to cover the educational expenses of four students from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) discipline.

The donation was made at a short ceremony which was held at the Student Financial Aid Office on the campus of the University.

Giving out the money, Head of Human Resource of EY Ghana, Mrs. Susan Sam explained that the donation was aimed at helping brilliant but needy students of the University.

“So simply put we have this cooperate social initiative to help brilliant but needy students while we evoke our scholarships to students who are determined to pursue academic excellence. Our focus was to have a full scholarship. That means when we get the student on the scholarship the student should be able to go to school, be able to have books to study, should have a peace of mind to study that means they should be able to have feeding or pocket money. In that way the student can focus only on academic work to help bring positive report,” she said.

Representing management of the University, Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School and Hall Master of the Elizabeth Frances Sey Hall, Dr. Francis Adzei, expressed his profound gratitude to Ernest and Young Ghana, and said that the gesture was very much welcomed.

“To our benefactors, on behalf of the University management and everybody, we wish to express our profound appreciation to you. This is a gesture that is very much welcome and we highly appreciate it”

Also speaking at the ceremony, Head of the Student Financial Aid Office, Mrs. Christine Baning, expressed gratitude to EY Ghana for the donation.

She reemphasized that the opportunity to be chosen for a scholarship was very competitive considering the minimum grade requirement.

Mrs. Baning however added that beneficiaries have over the years proven themselves worthy of receiving a scholarship.

“It is quite competitive, very competitive in the sense that these ones were taken out of the UG scholarship as we started and then placed on it and that comprises of about 245 students and these ones are the science students taken out of them. What they are to do is that they are to let us know that they continue to need the scholarship and have a GPA of 3.0 minimum. Sometimes I look at this and I say that this is deep but the students are capable of reaching such heights and they have been doing it over and over again. So we have just reached the stage whereby we are comfortable with our students and I’m sure these ones will also do same’’.

Speaking further, she announced that applications were open for the EY scholarship urging more female students to take up the opportunity to help bridge gender gap.

“As it goes into the media, ladies are encouraged to apply. It is not that we are being bias towards the men, no we are trying to bridge the gap,” she said

The Student Financial Aid Office has over the years been instrumental in supporting brilliant but needy students to access quality education at the University of Ghana.

At the 2019 July Congregation, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu mentioned that there was an increase in donations to the Office.

Prof. Oduro Owusu also stated that the Office was able to support about 66.7% of scholarship applicants.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the students Financial Aid Office has made it possible for less endowed but brilliant students to have equal access to quality education at the University of Ghana. I am glad to note that there has been an increase in donations from approximately GHȻ1,000,000.00 in the 2016-2017 academic year to approximately GHȻ3,000,000.00 in 2017/18 academic year.

This represents a 155% increase over the previous year. During the period under review, a total of Six Hundred and Fourteen Students (614) out of Nine Hundred and Twenty (920) applicants were awarded Scholarships. This represents 66.7% of all Scholarship applicants,” Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu said at the 2019 July Congregation of the University of Ghana.

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