The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Sunyani Technical University (STU), Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, has urged fresh students to exhibit high sense of purpose and diligence in pursuing their academic career to enable them achieve the required skills and competences that would make them successful in the world of work.
He gave the assurance that the university is determined to offer sponsorship to students who produce innovations and inventions through its Research and Innovation Fund (STURIF), saying “the Students’ Support Fund is also there to support needy, but brilliant students who encounter financial challenges”.
Professor Adinkrah-Appiah was addressing the 27th matriculation ceremony of the university in Sunyani where 3,014 fresh students – comprising 2,181 males and 833 females were admitted to pursue various degree and diploma programmes in the university.
The VC said the university issued 4,943 admission letters for the 2022/2023 academic year, saying in terms of disciplines 2,503 of the students were enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering and TVET programmes, as against 511 pursuing humanities.
RISE IN ENROLMENT
Prof Adinkrah-Appiah said the total enrolment of the fresh students showed an increase of 30.2 percent over the last academic year’s figure of 2,104 students.
“The appreciable rise in student enrolment at the University can be attributed to a number of measures put in place by management to increase intake, including improved visibility of the university, resulting from the 55th anniversary celebration and the introduction of new academic programmes”.
Prof Adinkrah-Appiah, therefore, called for more efforts to continuously improve and sustain visibility of the university through advertisement of its new Engineering, Science and TVET academic programmes to attract more prospective students, especially foreign ones into the university.
“When patronage of such skill-oriented industry-driven programmes is improved, it would help produce more skilled and entrepreneurially inclined graduates, who can readily find jobs or set up their own businesses to help accelerate the socio-economic development the country,” he said.
“This will also reduce the proclivity of other institutions having the opportunity to produce many graduates in the choked sectors of the national economy in order not to worsen the existing high spate of youth unemployment in the country,” he added.
ACCREDITATION
According to the Vice Chancellor, the university has received accreditation to run a number of programmes in Engineering, Science and Technology, Visual Arts and Business disciplines, which include 21BTech, 22HND and other programmes.
He, therefore, urged all prospective students to take advantage to enrol in those industry-driven programmes at the university to acquire the requisite knowledge, technical and professional skills that would make them readily employable to avoid the “temptation of joining the so-called unemployed graduates association’ after school.
SECURITY
Prof Adinkrah-Appiah said management has put in place measures to protect life and property on the university campus, which include the setting up of a police post, to augment the existing security architecture of the university. The lighting system on campus has also been improved, whilst security patrols and visibility have been enhanced.
