By Prince Agyapong
Koforidua, Sept. 27, GNA – The Koforidua Technical University has conducted the second session of its 18th convocation, graduating 1,692 students who fulfilled all the requirements for the award of a Higher National Diploma (HND) in various disciplines.
This leads to a total of 18,303 HND graduates who have studied and successfully completed the university’s academic system from 2010 to 2022.
According to the World University Ranking 2022, KTU is regarded as one of the best technical universities and sixth among public universities in Ghana.
Koforidua Technical University was founded as a polytechnic with 45 students in the 1996/1997 academic year, but today it has 8,132 students.
It aims at supporting younger generations in their moral, intellectual, physical, and social development by offering higher education in engineering, scientific, and technology-based disciplines; technical and vocational education and training, applied science; and associated fields.
Professor David Kofi Essumang, Vice Chancellor of Koforidua Technical University, speaking during the 18th Congregation ceremony, explained that 146 graduates received First Class, 875 received 2nd Class Upper, and 616 received 2nd Class Lower divisions.
Only 31 of the graduates received a pass, while 24 auto engineering graduates received a competent with merit diploma.
Twenty-five years after launching two HND programmes, the university now offers 12 Bachelor of Technology (B’Tech) programmes, 21 HND programmes, as well as various non-HND technical, professional, and Diploma in Business Studies programmes.
Professor Essumang said the university had secured approval and was awaiting accreditation to run four-year Bachelor of Technology programmes, namely Secretaryship and Management Studies, Marketing, as well as Procurement and Supply Chain Management.
Others include Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Telecommunication Engineering (Top-up), Accounting and Finance, Integrated Fashion and Textile Technology, Graphic Design Technology, Rehabilitation Engineering, Medical Imaging Technology, Building Technology (Top-up), Biomedical Engineering and Actuarial Science.
He explained that the university was still pursuing staff development through scientific research, saying that GHS 45,000.00 was allocated to various departments to undertake research activities for the 2021/2022 academic year.
He stated that the financing contributed to a key breakthrough, which resulted in the installation of a 10-cubic-metre bio-digester for biogas generation by the Renewable Energy System Engineering Department, which supplies gas.
The University has also seen a steady increase in international linkage, with one of the current overall graduating students from the Mechanical Engineering department being among the five students who participated in the Community College initiative programme in the United States of America in July 2022.
Highlighting issues affecting the school, Professor Essumang said they lacked appropriate funding, staff residential and office space, sufficient library space, and inadequate ICT facilities, in addition to hostel facilities.
Professor Samuel Obeng Apori, Chairman of the KTU Council, stated that the biggest concerns Ghana faced twere employability, economic, and environmental degradation (Galamsey).
He noted that the government could not employ every graduate from Ghana’s tertiary and non-tertiary institutions and challenged graduates to make their own careers with the knowledge, skills, and development gained to help the government create jobs.
He warned the graduates not to engage in dishonest methods to acquire riches in society and not to blame the government for economic issues, but work hard to become self-reliant.
GNA