KNUST Business School inuagurates 1200-seating capacity auditorium
The School of Business of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has inaugurated a 1200-seating capacity auditorium as part of its vision of producing high calibre graduates with expertise in management and strong entrepreneurial orientation.
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The auditorium, which was constructed from the internally generated fund (IGF) of the university at a cost of GH¢2.6 million, is designed to create a serene space for teaching, learning and research in the business school.
Plans are also far advanced for the university authorities to construct a five-storey lecture theatre complex (estimated at GH¢10 million) at the KNUST School of Business (KAS) with a seating capacity of about 1600 students.
According to the Dean of the KNUST School of Business, Prof. J. M. Frimpong, the five–storey theatre complex will be equipped with facilities and will be readily accessible by the physically challenged. It includes a library, a cafeteria and cubicles for PhD candidates. It will also be funded from the school’s IGF.
History of the KNUST School of Business
The KAS School of Business was established in 2005, with a total of 170 undergraduates and a similar number to pursue MBA programmes.
Currently, the school has a total of 2,500 students, with an estimated number of 500 candidates on its waiting list for next academic year.
In his inaugural address, the Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor Williams Otoo-Ellis, noted that the construction of the modern auditorium was an indication of the school’s commitment to empower graduates “with the requisite administrative and managerial skills to function very well in their world of work”.
“The school has been one of the fastest growing faculties of the university, with study programmes in full-time BSc and Masters in Business Administration, part-time BSc and Masters in Business Administration and week-end Masters in Business Administration,” he explained.
“The university has always faced a problem with numbers. For instance, this year alone, the number of students who applied to do their Master’s programme at the School of Business was close to 1,100, could unfortunately, the school could only admit just about 450 students, which is only about 40 per cent,” he explained.
He said it was part of the means of addressing the infrastructure challenges that the school was expanding the academic facilities.
For his part, the Dean of the KNUST School of Business, Professor J.M. Frimpong, gave an assurance of the school’s commitment to “provide the environment for excellence in teaching, learning in management and entrepreneurship in science and technology for industrial and socio-economic development of Ghana and Africa”.
“Our mission and vision sound ambitious, but we really are making great strides to achieve them,” he noted, and added “Our undergraduate programmes now attract quality students from all over the country such that last year for instance, we could not admit excellent students who had obtained aggregate 7 in the WASSCE examination,” he noted.
He said the school’s MBA programmes were always consistently oversubscribed, adding that another programme that had gained much recognition was the West African Institute for Supply Chain Leadership (WAISCL).
He said the programme, which is a collaboration between the KNUST School of Business and the Pan Avest Foundation, was primarily focused on education, research and training of students for them to attain excellence in various endeavours.
By George Ernest Asare/Daily Graphic/Ghana
