The Sunyani Technical University is making frantic efforts to absorb as many Free SHS graduates as possible, beginning from September this year when the next academic year is expected to commence.
To this end, the University is putting up a 1000-bed capacity hostel while efforts are also being made to renovate three existing hostels namely; Cocoa, Busia and Magazine Halls to provide decent accommodation for students.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, made these known at the 12th Congregation of the University in Sunyani.
In all, 1,554 students were awarded degrees and certificates including Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech), Higher National Diploma (HND) and other Diplomas in Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, Applied Arts as well as Business and Management disciplines.
Out of the graduating list, 1,057 (68.0%) are males, whilst 497 (32.0%) are females. Other details are as follows: 493 (31.7%) offered B-Technology, 919 (59.1%) offered HND and 142 (9.1%) offered other Diplomas. In terms of distribution according to classes, 160 (10.3%) obtained First Class, 791 (50.9%) obtained Second Class Upper, 557 (35.8%) obtained Second Class Lower, whilst 47 (3.0%) obtained Pass.
Prof. Ing. Adinkrah-Appiah also said new classrooms have been completed in the on-going Science Park Project under the auspices of the GETFund.
“We hope that more allocations and payments will be made by the GETFund to enable the University complete the Science Park Project to make available more classroom, Laboratory and office spaces to expand enrolment”, he added.
On Staff Development, the Vice-Chancellor announced that following the institution’s conversion from from Polytechnic to Technical University and the subsequent staff audit carried out by the NCTE, Management is undertaking aggressive staff development, through its IGF, to help upgrade the qualifications of our Faculty and Staff.
“Our ultimate aim is to ensure that at least 50% of all Faculty obtains a terminal degree (PhD) in the medium term. Currently, a total of 45 Faculty are being sponsored to pursue PhD programmes in various universities in Ghana and abroad. In addition, Management is making efforts to sponsor all faculty to have industrial experience, even as we recruit more staff directly from industry.”
He however expressed grave concern about “the high attrition rate of our Faculty in favour of the traditional Universities after they have been sponsored by the University to obtain their PhDs degrees through our limited IGF.”
“The only panacea to this canker is to create parity in the conditions of service of the Technical University Lecturer with that of the Traditional Universities. We are aware the Government is doing all it could to improve the conditions of service of the Technical University Staff, we urge Government to speed up the process and to ensure there will be no differentials, as far as salaries and allowances are concerned, between the Technical University Staff and the Traditional University staff of the same status.”
To the graduands, Prof. Ing. Adinkrah-Appiah noted that the lack of job opportunities is a major challenge facing graduates in Ghana as both the private and public sectors have not expanded well enough to employ the large numbers of graduates from the universities.
“The essence of the training you have received here at STU is that you have been prepared to be “self-reliant”, to be ‘employers’ and not ‘employees’ and to be ‘job creators’ and not ‘job seekers’.
For his part, the Chairman of the Engineering Council of Ghana, Ing. Kwesi Abbey-Sam touched on the need for projects and programmes executed in the country to be able to stand the test of time and also be backed by what he called “a Maintenance Management System.”
“To be able to effectively spearhead the development of this nations, we must seek for excellence in every aspect of our work – in studies, in our planning, in our design, in our execution, in our supervision and in our maintenance”, Ing Kwesi Abbey-Sam emphasized.
Chairman of the STU Governing Council, Ing. Dr. Kwame Agyeman Boakye thanked government for selecting the university as one of the beneficiary institutions of the US$130 million facility under the Ghana-China project.
Beneficiary institutions under the project would witness a major face-lift in the areas of training workshops for mechanical engineering, civil engineering, welding engineering, among others.