At the 90th Academic Board Meeting held on Tuesday, July 15, 2025 at the Miotso campus, Central University officially launched its 5-Year Strategic Plan (2023–2028) along with a suite of critical academic and institutional documents. This milestone event marks a significant moment in the University’s ongoing journey to strengthen its operations, academic delivery, and student experience.
The 5-Year Strategic Plan outlines five major thrusts that will guide the University’s development:
- provide a quality, relevant, and functional teaching and learning ecosystem
- ensure a student-centred university experience
- attain financial stability and sustainability
- maintain regulatory compliance and foster community engagement; and
- build a high-performance work environment.
These strategic directions reflect Central University’s ambition to align its activities with global best practices while maintaining its distinct identity rooted in faith, integrity, and academic excellence.
The overarching aim of the Strategic Plan is to ensure academic direction that aligns with the University’s brand promise, backed by a robust, teaching and learning framework. It also targets a consistent 80% year-on-year student satisfaction rate, elimination of fiscal stress through demonstrable financial buffers, full regulatory compliance with verifiable stakeholder engagement, and a work environment that fosters internal peace and employee satisfaction.
In addition to the Strategic Plan, the University unveiled key updated resources, including:
- Compendium of Academic Compliance, Quality Assurance and Related Policies
- Revised Undergraduate Students Handbook
- Revised Graduate Studies Handbook
- General Regulations for Graduate Studies
- Student Handbooks for all eight Schools and Faculties, and
- University’s Hostel Village Project Brochure.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bill Puplampu, commended the various teams that worked diligently to prepare these documents and expressed appreciation to all stakeholders for their insights and contributions. He highlighted the significant progress the University has made in recent years and conveyed confidence in CU’s preparedness to navigate the next five years guided by this comprehensive Strategic Plan. He emphasized that its success will depend on collective responsibility and a shared commitment from management, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners.
The revised student and school/faculty handbooks are scheduled to take effect from September 1, 2025, coinciding with the start of the new academic year. Their revision was necessitated by the University’s increasing complexity, its evolving operating structure, and a need to reflect current legal and regulatory expectations. The updated documents aim to establish consistency across policies, ensure clarity of expression, uphold institutional governance, safeguard stakeholder rights, and articulate CU’s position on academic and administrative obligations.
A significant highlight of the launch was the introduction of the Hostel Village Project—an initiative designed to address the University’s growing residential accommodation deficit, especially at the Miotso campus. As of the 2023/24 academic year, Miotso has capacity for only 1,300 students, despite the campus having facilities that can support up to 6,000 students if a multiple stream system is adopted. The Kumasi and Christ Temple campuses currently have no accommodation facilities at all. This shortfall, amounting to over 5,000 beds, presents strategic risks to student safety, campus engagement, and academic scheduling.
The Hostel Village Project is a modular, scalable initiative that aims to provide standardized on-campus student housing. Designed around a “home-away-from-home” principle, it will offer affordable, livable spaces that enhance academic focus and student life. The project will occupy 10–20 acres on the southern border of the Miotso campus and is open to private entrepreneurs who may choose to construct one or more housing units. Its flexible design allows for phased completion and use, ensuring practical implementation without the financial pressures of large-scale construction.
In his closing remarks, Professor Puplampu charged the Academic Board and the wider University community to make full use of these new resources and work together to build a Central University that delivers exceptional value to its students and stakeholders. He reiterated the University’s commitment to becoming a first-class, student-centred institution with a strong focus on applied science and applied social science—relevant to the nation, responsive to the Church, and respected across the continent.