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UPSA Celebrates Founder, Nana Opoku Ampomah I, as he turns 95 Today

The founder of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) who is also the Paramount Chief of Amoafo Traditional Area has turned 95 years today. The UPSA fraternity has taken to Social Media to celebrate the founder in a grand style.

“A glorious 95th birthday to Nana Opoku Ampomah I, Founder of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, and Paramount Chief of Amoafo Traditional Area.” was the message that came with a picture of Nana Opoku Ampomah I.

History of University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA)

The University of Professional Studies, (UPSA) formerly the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) was birthed out of a dream of a young man in 1965 as a private business professional institution. By dint of hard work, the founder, Nana J.K. Opoku Ampomah successfully carved a niche for the Institute as the only tertiary educational institution to train professional accountants and administrators in the whole of West Africa at the time. The institution has undergone a lot of restructuring over the years through to where it is today.

From a humble beginning as a Private Tutorial College in 1965, the Institution was taken over by government in 1978 by the Institute of Professional Studies Decree, 1979 (SMCD 200). Subsequently, on 22nd April 1999, the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) Act, Act 566 was passed to establish the Institute as a tertiary institution with the responsibility of providing tertiary education in the academic disciplines of Accountancy and Management.

With great fortitude and hard work, the Presidential Charter was granted to the Institute in September, 2008 making it a fully-fledged university capable of awarding its own certificates, diplomas and degrees for its accredited programmes. In 2012, the University of Professional Studies Act 2012, Act 850 was passed to change the name of the Institution from Institute of Professional Studies to University of Professional Studies.

Repositioned as a fully-fledged public university, with its unique mandate to provide academic and professional education, the University is poised towards attaining scholarship, professionalism and entrepreneurship; offering professional, postgraduate, bachelors and diploma programmes. From an initial enrolment of five students in 1965, the University currently can boast of more than 20,000 students.

Re-naming

At a Special Congregation on 26th April, 2018 the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo unveiled the plaque to rename the University after the Founder of the Institute, Nana Opoku Ampomah. The necessary constitutional and legal processes have been put in motion to effect the name change to Opoku Ampomah University of Professional Studies.