By Dennis Peprah
Sunyani, July 28, GNA-Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) has affirmed the university’s readiness to establish a medical school.
This is in keeping with the government’s working on modalities for the conversion of the Bono Regional Hospital to the status of a Teaching Hospital.
Cabinet has already approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the conversion of the Hospital to a Teaching Hospital status which has paved the way for the establishment of the medical school at UENR.
Describing the approval as good news, Prof Asare-Bediako told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani “We fully support the conversion, and we are ready to establish a unique medical school”.
He emphasised the university’s physical infrastructure had improved, and assured the first cohort of the medical school would be admitted by the end of July 2024 “because infrastructure is not a problem”.
Nonetheless, the VC said the University required more hostel facilities at all its teaching sites and called on stakeholders to invest in that regard to help expand hostel facilities at the university enclave.
Prof Asare-Bediako said the government was also working on the establishment of a new campus at Nsoatre in the Sunyani West Municipality, saying “We want support from everybody because we want to position UENR as one of the best and first-class universities”
He said though the institution was still young, the faster pace at which it was growing was an indication that “very soon we will achieve our vision of becoming a first-class university in the country”.
The UENR was established by an Act of Parliament, Act 830, 2011 on December 31, 2011, and it approaches its programmes and research emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, and considering areas such as economics, law and policy, management, science, technology, and engineering as well as social and political issues affecting energy and natural resources.
GNA