Hygiene School Students Protest, Demand UHAS Vacate Dave Campus in Ho

Accra: Students of the School of Hygiene, Ho, have staged a demonstration demanding the immediate release of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) Dave campus, citing infrastructure challenges that have led to withheld National Service Scheme (NSS) registration pins for their final-year students.According to Ghana News Agency, the protest took place on Thursday, June 26, 2025, with scores of students led by their Students' Representative Council (SRC) President, Mr. Famous Tiodzah. They marched through the principal streets of Ho to the campus premises, carrying placards and chanting solidarity songs.The students expressed frustration over what they described as years of neglect and overcrowding. They attributed the withholding of NSS registration pins for their final-year students to the inadequate infrastructure on the Dave campus, which houses both the School of Hygiene and UHAS students.Mr. Tiodzah stated that the situation had become unbearable and was now affecting the academic and p rofessional future of their colleagues, whose NSS processes had been halted due to lack of accreditation from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). He noted that final-year students are due for completion on June 27, but their NSS pins have been withheld because of unresolved infrastructure challenges. The students have given UHAS a three-week ultimatum to vacate the entire Dave campus to allow the School of Hygiene to manage its own facilities.The sharing of lecture halls, hostels, and laboratories with UHAS had overstretched available resources, compromised the quality of training, and led to accreditation concerns from the regulatory authorities. The students, in their petition, demanded that UHAS relinquish all control of the Dave campus facilities, including lecture rooms, hostels, and offices, to enable the School of Hygiene to meet the required infrastructural standards for accreditation.The petition was received on behalf of UHAS management by Mrs. Ruth Xoladem Ayittey, Director of Works and Physical Development at the University. She assured the demonstrators that their concerns would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities for prompt attention. Mrs. Ayittey told the students, 'We have received your grievances and will duly communicate them to management. Management is committed to resolving the challenges amicably.'Some of the students who spoke to the Ghana News Agency expressed disappointment in successive authorities for failing to address their plight, despite several appeals and media engagements. Ms. Selina Doe, a third-year student, stated, 'We can't continue to suffer in silence. Our training as public health officers is being jeopardized by these poor conditions.'The demonstration ended peacefully with a firm message from the students that they would return with intensified action if their demands were not met within the stated period. The School of Hygiene, Ho, has in recent years grappled with infrastructural constraints, which stakeholders say pose a threat to the qualit y of training for environmental health professionals in the country.