The 15th Congregation of Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) was held on Saturday at the New Great Hall of the University with 2,653 people graduating. This comprised students who completed their various programmes of study in the 2018/2019 academic year. Out of the 2,653 graduands, 890 were females while 1,775 of them were males. The graduands received certificates in Bachelor of Technology (BTech), Higher National Diploma (HND), Professional and other Diplomas.
Addressing the gathering, the newly appointed and first substantive Vice-Chancellor of KsTU Ing. Prof. Nana Osei-Wusu Achaw reiterated the importance of the Ceremony. He said, it is always an occasion that offers unique opportunity to take stock of the Institution’s activities during the year and exchange ideas with stakeholders in government, industry and commerce as well as the public in general. He said, graduands are presented during the occasion and it is also a time to tell the world about the many opportunities for self-advancement at KsTU.
The Vice-Chancellor emphasized that KsTU has already upgraded 28 of its HND programmes to Bachelor of Technology level and that, it was seeking clearance from NCTE to run these programmes next academic year. In the words of the Vice-Chancellor, he emphasized that “the upgrading of our programmes is a natural growth course of the University. However, it is also an effort to increase our programmes offer in anticipation of increased enrollment as a result of the Government’s Free SHS programme. I am again glad to announce that currently, in the year under review, the University started running 5 MTech programmes in Water and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Health Statistics, Environmental Statistics, and Financial Statistics”.
He informed the gathering that additionally, the University has initiated measures to develop its niche area of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Therefore, in view of that the University is developing a 3-year road map to build infrastructure and expertise in the niche area.
Ing. Prof. Osei-Wusu Achaw made a passionate appeal to the government to facilitate the clearance processes to enable KsTU recruit more staff to fill the existing vacancies in the University so as to effectively deliver on its mandate. He finally advised the graduating students to always remember that a lot of resources, both human and financial have been committed into their training, therefore, they should go out there and commit themselves to hard, dedicated and honest work to justify the huge investments made towards their training.
