Technical university postgraduate programmes panacea for unemployment — Prof. Bamfo-Agyei
The School of Graduate Studies of the Cape Coast Technical University has integrated internships in all postgraduate programmes with a target of making the employability of graduates as the main focus.
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It said the university had a practice-oriented approach and a focus on applied research, hence the objective.
The Dean of Graduate Studies, Prof. Emmanuel Kwamina Bamfo-Agyei, said this at a day’s Postgraduate Supervision Workshop for academic staff.
Background
Prof. Bamfo-Agyei said lecturers teaching the postgraduate programme had a strong academic background as well as practical experience in industry.
He noted that rather than students being expected to conduct substantial theoretical work, they would more likely engage in practical projects in cooperation with industries.
Prof. Bamfo-Agyei argued that the vision of the school was to become the centre of excellence and the first choice for graduate education.
He said postgraduate programmes at Cape Coast Technical University would be the panacea of unemployment issues among the youth in Ghana.
Supervision
Prof. Clinton Aigbavboa from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, disclosed that there was the need for academic staff to provide quality supervision to the students and there was a need to re-evaluate the approach to postgraduate education and expected skills post-completion.
If the continent is to advance, her academic institutions must overcome the existent obstacles in providing the education, research and service needed, particularly through advancement on the postgraduate education front.
These should be mandated to produce research for solving or providing insight into the development challenges plaguing the African continent (job creation for the youth, population explosion, disease, climate change, food insecurity and political instability).
These contexts negatively affect their performance as the quality of graduates produced by any institution impacts heavily on knowledge creation, international comparability, competitiveness; on the preparation of future researchers and their research output; as well as on national capacity to respond appropriately and innovatively, through research, to the various demands of globalisation, localisation and transformation, in the context of a rapidly changing knowledge economy.
Mentorship
Prof. Aigbavboa added that there was a need of mentorship between younger and senior academics to ensure quality of supervision stressing that supervisors were to set up early warning systems.
He said research supervision was vital to the successful conduct of research and Postgraduate studies.
He noted that there was a need to examine the recruitment and funding modalities to enhance quality postgraduate students.
Prof. Aigbavboa was speaking on Postgraduate Students Supervisor Practices at the just-ended workshop on postgraduate supervision.
The Registrar of Cape Coast Technical University, Dr Anthony Turkson, appealed to the academic staff to take the workshop seriously since it would go a long way to benefit the students they were supervising.
He also expressed gratitude to the resource person from travelling all the way from South Africa to help the staff of Cape Coast Technical University.