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A Deputy Minister in Charge of Tertiary Education, Samuel OkudZeto Ablakwah has debunked claims that more than 30,000 candidates who successfully passed the 2014 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) may not be able to gain admission into any university in the country. Thursday, 4th September, 2014 edition's of the Daily Graphic newspaper stated that 30,000 candidates cannot get admission into the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) due to the fact that they have closed admissions for the 2014/2015 academic year. But whiles admitting that the two universities have closed admissions before WASSCE results were released, he however quickly added that negotiations are still ongoing to prevent students from staying at home for a whole year. Speaking in an interview on Peace FM's morning show, �Kokrokoo� Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa indicated that �the figures put out by Daily Graphic can be quite misleading� because the number of candidates who applied to KNUST or UCC might have also applied to other institutions in the country. �Those who didn�t get admission into KNUST and UCC will get admission into other institutions they have applied for. Candidates have the option of buying multiple application forms. The fact that you have seen a certain number of students with KNUST does not mean they have not applied to other universities. You are allowed to apply to as many tertiary institutions as you wish� nothing stops them and so we need to go beyond the number, or surface and ask how many of the students who applied to KNUST also applied elsewhere. "It is not as if the universities are going to be empty. There are backlogs (those who applied previously but could not gain admission); they are also Ghanaians and so we need to look at that also," he suggested and reiterated that "as we make the analysis, we should consider and understand that there are backlogs that have to be cleared." �We don�t want WASSCE candidates to stay at home for a whole year. Our policy is that they should be able to progress once they have qualified and they have met the entry requirement and cut off point and we will continue to hold the necessary engagement with WAEC and the universities to have a seamless transition for the candidates. There should not be any panic or alarm, we have the policy of engaging with WAEC and the tertiary institutions to allow a working arrangement for these students to be admitted. I believe such conditions will not exist next year and it is also an opportunity to clear the backlog�.