KNUST alumni congress slated for October
The national executive of the Alumni Association of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor William Otoo Ellis, have paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director (MD) of Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, in his office in Accra.
Advertisement
The visit was to formally invite Mr Ashigbey and the Graphic Communications Group Ltd to the upcoming 8th National Biennial Congress of the association in Kumasi on October 18, this year.
The President of the KNUST alumni association, Mr Tony Danklu, said the event was a homecoming opportunity for all alumni who had not visited the university campus in a while to come and see the massive developments that have taken place in the last two years.
He called for support from the alumni to enable the university achieve more in the coming years, noting that the only way to achieve success was for the alumni to be united in their resolve to provide financial and material support for their alma mater.
According to him, the stage is set for the association to assume global dimension. He said the groundwork for that had already been done with Ghana chosen as the de facto headquarters.
The Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor Otoo Ellis, commended Graphic Communications Group Limited for their support for the university. He said KNUST, even in the face of challenges, continues to be a trail blazer insofar as tertiary education in the country was concerned.
Programmes
In a power point presentation, he made enumerated some of the university’s achievements. He said currently KNUST was the only tertiary institution in the country that was conducting biometric registration of students. In addition, he said the university had automated its enrolment processes such that it took students about 30 minutes to complete registration online including choice of halls or residence, even before they arrived on campus.
He said the university was also re-equiping and modernising the school’s laboratories into modern state-of-the-art facilities.
“Under this programme, the university has spent close to $8 million in the setting up of an oil and gas industry,” he said.
Professor Ellis said KNUST had also introduced 11 new postgraduate programmes mainly in science and technology making it possible now for people to apply for postgraduate studies all year round
The Vice Chancellor mentioned that in fulfilling the university’s initiative of “bringing KNUST closer to the doorstep of students,” it was significant to establish structures like city campuses to accommodate the increasing student population.
“The authorities had implemented series of programmes and initiatives to offer more opportunities to prospective students and so had established city campuses in four regional capitals: Tamale, Kumasi, Takoradi and Accra,” he said
He said the university faced challenges with funding of its projects and programmes because the alumni were not proactive enough. He cited the laudable example, however, of the assistance from Joseph and John Amaglo, Chief Executive Officers of Joeomah Geometrics, both alumni of the university, who have donated Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) and an Electronic Total Station which were state-of-the-art surveying equipment.
The Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, who is an alumnus of KNUST, promised to attend the congress. He expressed his admiration for the manifold developments that had taken place in the university. He said he was particularly impressed with the establishment of the Accra City Campus of the university, which he said would go a long way to create synergy between the university and industry.
For instance, he urged the university to link up with Graphic Communications Group Limited in print technology by sending some members of that faculty on an attachment programme to the company in order to benefit from innovations in the sector.