The Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has affirmed his full support for his University Council’s decision to keep state-built residential halls mixed. The Asantehene made this declaration in his address at the 2018 Special Congregation Ceremony of KNUST.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II noted that Ghana’s population stands in a ratio of 49:51 in favour of females. For this reason, he stated that the decision by Management and supported by the University Council to increase residential accommodation for females on campus was a step in the right direction and should have the support of all stakeholders, including the alumni.
He made an offer to the alumni, thus “The University should be able to give you land to build new unisex residential halls designed to uphold your traditions, if you so wish.”
He further stated emphatically that Universities are run on regulations to make the academic space tolerable for all. As such, order must be kept, and rules followed to allow students have the freedom to operate without intimidation.
The Chancellor also cautioned male students saying “Lewd male student behaviour in the presence of female students in the name of culture and traditions is not justifiable under any circumstances. Any culture that is not dynamic dies.”
The Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Honourable Kwesi Yankah, announced plans of the Ministry of Education, to convene in June this year, a National University Alumni Summit, where stakeholders will undertake a critical appraisal of the role of alumni in tertiary education.
According to Professor Yankah, the summit, the first ever to assume that dimension will bring together various generations of university administrators, students and alumni, for an open dialogue on recent campus events, and submit proposals towards leveraging the huge alumni resource potential from universities to revitalize university education.
The Minister stated that research is key in renewing the content of curriculum across all levels of education and has a significant impact on the quality of a nation’s development, with data forming the basis.
He however lamented on the relative paucity of reliable data in almost every department of life in African countries. He used the occasion to call on the students of graduate studies to come up with original and reliable data for cutting-edge research to change the phase of research in Africa to help in planning for development.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso, revealed KNUST’s readiness to respond positively to the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy by government. However, he called on government to allow the University to employ more young lecturers who together with the retirees work to make the expansion possible.
He further called for a four-fold expansion of the existing broad band facilities to allow the University to expand e-learning through distance education. In conclusion, he also called for help to complete all academic facilities that have been started or on-going on the campus especially, the Teaching Hospital.
The 2018 Special Congregation Ceremony had a total of 3,729 graduates. Out of this number, 1,268 candidates were conferred with undergraduate degrees and 2,461 with graduate degrees, comprising 38 terminal degrees, PhD.