University of Mines and Technology to be expanded
The authorities of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa in the Western Region have initiated discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning towards the realisation of the government's promise to expand the university.
Advertisement
The authorities of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) at Tarkwa in the Western Region have initiated discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning towards the realisation of the government's promise to expand the university.
The authorities have prepared a concept note for the development of a new site, located on a 26-kilometre square land donated to the university by the chiefs and people of Wassa Fiase Traditional Area.
The ministry is also in the process of engaging a transaction advisor to fast-track preparation towards the development of the new campus under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Matriculation
Addressing the 10th matriculation ceremony of students of the university on Saturday, the Vice Chancellor of the UMaT, Professor J.S.Y. Kumah, also disclosed that the university had managed to partly complete the 500-bed Dr M.T. Kofi hall of residence which had stalled for more than seven years.
That, he said, had ameliorated the accommodation challenges faced by students on campus, adding that management of the university would, therefore, continue to explore innovative ways to complete the entire edifice to ease the pressure on residential accommodation on campus.
Applications
This year, the university received 1, 896 applications for admission to pursue undergraduate programmes, out of which 187, representing 9.8 per cent, were women.
However, the university was able to admit only 503 applicants, representing 26.5 per cent of the total applications.
Of those admitted, 424, representing 84.3 per cent, were males while 79 or 15.7 per cent were females.
The vice chancellor indicated that the university could have admitted more students but sadly, "We are constrained as a result of limited facilities such as classrooms, laboratories and other necessary infrastructure to aid the total learning experience."
Women engineering education
Over the last couple of years, Prof. Kuma said, the authorities had encouraged women to venture into engineering education through the university's gender mainstreaming policy.
"We will, therefore, continue to evolve new initiatives to sustain the programme to encourage more females to pursue engineering programmes in our university," he reassured.
Programmes
Among the programmes offered at UMaT are Geomatic, Geological, Mining, Petroleum, Environmental and Safety Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical/Electronic Engineering.
Others are Computer Engineering and Mathematics.
Postgraduate admissions
In the area of postgraduate admissions, the university admitted 73 students to pursue various programmes leading to the award of MSc, MPhil and PhD degrees, and that sums up the total postgraduate student population to 298, which is approximately 13.7 per cent of the total student enrolment of about 2, 173.
The Vice Chancellor explained that it had been the goal of the university to increase total postgraduate enrolment into the university to 30 per cent of the total student population.
"We will pursue this goal, however, with vigour by encouraging practising engineers and professionals to enrol into our innovative modular programmes without leaving their jobs," Prof. Kuma further assured.
The Vice Chancellor again disclosed that this year, UMaT admitted 41 international students from countries including Nigeria, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroun, Kenya, Liberia and Burkina Faso, to pursue different programmes.
Core values
He advised the students that in shaping their intellectual capacities, they ought to be aware of the core values of UMaT and those were: knowledge, truth and excellence, saying those values drove scholarship and intellectual enterprise in the university.