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A total of 7,444 students out of 10,000 applicants gained admission under the University of Cape Coast (UCC's) Distance Learning Programme for the 2009/2010 academic year, the largest since the inception of the programme nine years ago. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang said this when she matriculated fresh students on Tuesday. She expressed regret that figures of people admitted from the three northern regions as well as the Volta Region were low and appealed to students from those regions to encourage people from their areas who have the requisite qualification to "access this unique Opportunity". Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said she was also unhappy that the figure for female admissions this year, which is 37%, falls below that of last year's figure of 40% and urged as many women as possible to access university education. The Vice-Chancellor said the large number of students involved in the programme posed a great challenge and that measures had been put in place to avoid the situation where standards would be compromised. Among the measures she said was that 809 course tutors had been engaged at all the 33 study centers throughout the country while course modules prepared by UCC lecturers were also available. There are regular visits by lecturers who inspect and monitor teaching activities and regular monthly quizzes and the weekly monitoring of face to face sessions are also done. Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said new academic programmes had been introduced and these include a four-year program in marketing and a three-year diploma and degree programmes in Psychology and Foundations of Education and next year, a Bachelor of Science Degree would be added. She said it was the vision of UCC to establish permanent study centres in all the 10 regions of the country that would eventually become colleges of the University.