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  Mr Justice Samuel Adjei (right), Prof. Kwame Agyenim Boateng (middle), Chairman of the University Council, and Prof. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah  jointly unveiling a plaque to inaugurate the university.
Mr Justice Samuel Adjei (right), Prof. Kwame Agyenim Boateng (middle), Chairman of the University Council, and Prof. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah jointly unveiling a plaque to inaugurate the university.

‘Convert new SHSs into technical institutions’

The vice chancellor of the Sunyani Technical University (STU), Prof. (Ing.) Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, has called on the incoming administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to convert the newly established community day senior high schools (SHSs) into technical/vocational institutions and equip them to serve as feeder schools for the new technical universities.

He said the country already had more than 650 senior high schools which had been feeding the existing public and private universities, while there were currently only 48 technical and vocational institutions to feed the polytechnics which had now been converted into technical universities.

At the inauguration of the Sunyani Technical University in Sunyani yesterday, Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah said the conversion of the new day SHSs into technical/vocational institutions would enable the technical universities to enrol enough students to pursue various higher technical education programmes to help in the country’s industrialisation process.

The ceremony was also used to matriculate 1,532 freshmen into the university to pursue a number of four-year degree programmes, including Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech).

The students have been enrolled to pursue Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, Built and Applied Art and Business and Management Studies.

The STU is among eight polytechnic institutions which were converted into technical universities following the passage of the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922) by Parliament this year.

Advice

Addressing the gathering, Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah acknowledged that education was an investment with a long gestation period and called on the students not to disappoint their parents, friends, local communities and the nation who had high expectations of them.

“Let me congratulate you, freshmen and women on being the privileged ones to have been offered admission to this university as first entrants,” he stated.

He advised faculty members and non-teaching staff of the university to continue to pursue professional and career development to properly fit into the new status of the institution.

Recognition

Giving reasons for the conversion of the polytechnics to technical universities, Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah explained, “It was to solve the problems of lack of academic progression for polytechnic graduates, lack of clarity and relevance of polytechnic education and poor conditions for polytechnic faculty and staff that the Polytechnic Act, 2007 (Act 745) was enacted.”

He said the objectives of the act were, however, not realised as regulatory authorities in the tertiary education sector demanded charters from polytechnic institutions before allowing them to run higher degree programmes.

For his part, the Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Justice Samuel Adjei, called on students, faculty members and staff of the new technical university to work hard to solve technical problems facing people in the area to justify their new status.

He advised the freshmen to take advantage of facilities at their disposal in order to add value to their education in order to be useful to themselves and the country in future.

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