The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE), Professor Alpha Tejan Wurie has declared 15th October 2022, as the commencement date for the 2022/2023 academic year for all universities across the country.

Speaking at a Press Conference held at the Ministry’s Conference Room at New England Ville in Freetown yesterday, the  Professor Wurie said this is in consultation with the Vice Chancellors and Principals of Public Tertiary Institutions.

The re-introduction of preliminary year for students pursuing STEM Programmes and all newly admitted students to start lectures on the 17th October 2022 was also agreed upon. Students pursuing various diploma programmes and successfully so in the constituent colleges of public universities be allowed to pursue degree courses in the same options at various levels based on their cumulative grade point average.

Following the publication of the 2022 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, the MTHE convened a meeting with Heads and Registrars of Higher Education Institutions to deliberate on the modes of absorbing these candidates, on assessment of the existing facilities and capacity.

Professor Alpha Wurie informed the media about the establishment of Community Colleges, as a new approach to access higher education provisions at Community and District levels. He also spoke of the Kono University, which foundation courses, he said, will commence in November 2022, leading to Diploma and Certificate Programmes.

With the creation of Sierra Leone Open University, the MTHE, Vice Chancellors, and Principals of (HEIs) are to work with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) for the establishment of accreditation of Electronic Learning course options.

Since not all Public Tertiary Institutions have such a platform, the creation of Sierra Leone Open University was said to commence this academic year. Findings revealed that the Government should increase funding to support new interventions in higher education.

According to Prof. Wurie, the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) was created by the New Direction Government of President Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio in 2018, by delinking it from Basic Education; to focus specifically on technical and higher education.

The MTHE has not been prescriptive in higher education, but instead, working in consonant with the professional and administration of Higher Education. In 2018, at the start of the FQE figures show that thirty- two thousand pupils took the WASSCE, and by investment of the New Direction Government, one hundred and two thousand (102,000) were given the opportunity to sit to the WASSCE exams in 2019, and those with 5 credit at one sitting were three thousand, one hundred and fifty six, which indicates that the government did not make significant gains in 2019.