Delivering the mandate of technical universities
There were many arguments for and against the conversion of some polytechnics to technical universities but in the wisdom of the legislature, the nation stands to benefit if our existing polytechnics are converted to technical universities rather than maintaining their current status. As a result, the legislature backed the conversion with law on August 3, 2016.
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While one may not agree with those who were against the conversion, it is also important to digest some of the issues that need to be addressed if the newly converted technical universities are to deliver on their mandate.
The newly converted technical universities are supposed to concentrate on engineering, science, vocational and technical- oriented programmes with little or no concentration on Business and Humanities. Per the comment of Mr Haruna Iddrisu, who is also the Employment and Labour Relations Minister which appeared on myjoyonline.com on July 20, 2016, converted technical universities should be limited to running programmes that are within their mandate with no attention given to business-related programmes.
While this is a beautiful suggestion and needs to be welcomed, it can only work based on the commitment of the government. Many of the traditional universities deviated from their mandate not deliberately but as a way of running programmes that they believe can boost their revenue generation internally. If the government can be committed to technical education and provide all the necessary logistics and infrastructure, then the newly converted technical universities sticking to their core mandate is possible else they may be forced to find alternative means of boosting their internally generated funds to finance their capital projects and other expenditures which obviously cannot be ignored by paying attention to business-related programmes.
Making programmes attractive
The commitment of the government should also extend to putting all measures in place to make it attractive for people to opt for engineering, science, vocational and technical-oriented programmes at these technical universities. Taking Kumasi Polytechnic as an example, the institution has not entirely deviated from its core mandate as the number of programmes run in engineering, science, vocational and technical are far more than business programmes, yet when it comes to enrolment, the reverse is the case as the number of applicants who show interest in business-related programmes outweigh applicants in engineering, science and technical-oriented programmes.
If technical universities are not to mimic traditional universities but stick to their mandate and attract students in the technical areas, policies that are meant to encourage students into these areas should be encouraged. For example, the US government policy of investing $115 million in its energy sector to create jobs for students who opt for programmes in renewable energy and energy efficiency is worth considering and can be replicated in other science and technical areas to boost students’ interest in these areas.
On the cost of training students, attracting and retaining staff in these technical universities, the government should allocate significant amount of resources since it cost a lot to have the full complement set of the skills, the knowledge and abilities (SKAs) required by these technical universities to train students that meet the expectation of industries.
Experience and academic qualification of staff
In the past, one of the measures the government had put in place was to introduce market premium that would enable government institutions compete favourably with the private sector on critical skills that were in short supply in the labour market. It is obvious that academic staff in a technical university need to have industrial experience together with academic qualification before such staff can deliver service to students.
This is considered a prerequisite since this will bridge the gap in terms of knowledge and skills acquired by graduates from these technical universities and what is required by the industry. To achieve this, it means industrial training in technical universities cannot only be extended to students but should also be seen as mandatory to teaching staff of these universities.
Extending industrial training to staff in these converted technical universities goes with cost and the question is, do the institutions have the necessary resources to meet this cost or will it be absorbed by the government? To me, as the technical universities expand and will need more manpower now and in the future, the government should offer premium that will make it more attractive for those with these critical skills to opt for lecturing in these technical universities since it is the technical universities that will drive our industries by way of inventions. By so doing, there is no need for these institutions or the government to employ academic staff and spend huge sums of money on training such staff at least in the short run to acquire industrial experience.
To conclude, it is necessary to look at the comment posted on myjoyonline, July 20, 2016 by Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, that the technical universities will produce graduates that will create jobs for themselves and others since they will be entrepreneurial minded. Looking at this comment, this can be made possible if technical universities can attract staff that have the business acumen and industrial experience that will help these students develop the entrepreneurial mindset to create something for themselves after school. Getting this calibre of human resource involves placing huge premium on them in order to attract the few that are currently available on the labour market to help these technical universities deliver on their mandate.