Accra, Dec 18, GNA— Professor Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, has been inducted into office as the first Vice Chancellor (VC) for the Ghana Communications Technology University (GCTU).
The University gained full charter status in August 2020.
The colourful investiture, which took place at the University’s campus in Accra and characterised by various shades of traditional wear (predominantly, Kente), ushered in Prof Afoakwa as the VC for a four-year term, ending 2025.
The ceremony was attended by members of the Council, Convocation, Students and non-teaching staff of the University, people from the academia and industry, traditional leaders, as well as family and friends.
In a speech, Prof Afokwa, said, he was poised to transform the University by capitalising on modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with structures that would build an entrepreneurial institution to contribute to the country’s fiscal consolidation.
He said, he would in the next four years, develop effective governance structures and systems for the University and ensure that students’ experiences were enhanced to make them better graduates and entrepreneurs for the nation.
He added that he would spearhead an administration that would strengthen partnerships with various organisations and make sure that GCTU becomes “an entrepreneurial and enterprising university to ensure fiscal stability.”
In addition to promoting transnational and virtual education, he said, “this university will be a destination of choice for students in pursuit of excellence and industry ready-skills. We will give them [the students] diligent training that will make them so successful.”
He pledged that the University under his management would only pursue its core mandate, stating that, “this University was established to provide a viable centre of higher education in ICT and to undertake research in the area of ICT and we’re going to adhere strictly to that.”
He signaled that with the support of the University Council, GCTU would be transformed into a collegiate system with the establishment of three colleges; college of Computing Systems and Technology, College of communications and Engineering, and College of Business and Technology.
This transformation, he said, would be done in the next two years, emphasising that the colleges would have 80 per cent of all its programmes focusing in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and ICT.
Dr Kofi Koduah Sarpong, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), urged the VC to seek for collaboration with industry.
This collaboration, he said, should be one that would lead to the development of programmes and structures that would meet the growing ICT needs of students and industry in the times of a “new normal.”
He, indicated the GNPC’s commitment in working with the University in such direction, noting that the Corporation was already considering a proposal to supporting the GCTU build new infrastructure.
The University Teachers Association of Ghana (GUTA), Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA), Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (TEWU) and the Vice Chancellors Ghana, offered goodwill messages.
GNA