The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian public universities.
It was founded in 1948, in the British colony of the Gold Coast, as the University College of the Gold Coast, and was originally an affiliate college of the University of London, which supervised its academic programmes and awarded degrees.
It gained full university status in 1961, and now has nearly 40,000 students.
The original emphasis was on the liberal arts, social sciences, law, basic science, agriculture and medicine. However, as part of a national educational reform program, the university's curriculum was expanded to provide more technology-based and vocational courses as well as postgraduate training.
The university is mainly based at Legon, about 12 kilometres northeast of the centre of Accra.
Its medical school is in Korle Bu, with a teaching hospital and secondary campus in the city of Accra.
It also has a graduate school of nuclear and Allied Sciences at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, making it one of the few universities on the Africa continent offering programs in nuclear physics and nuclear engineering.
