The Institute of Distance Learning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST-IDL), has had its matriculation ceremony for the 2013/2014 batch of students from the Southern and Western sectors. The ceremony which marks the formal acceptance of students as junior members in statu pupillari, was organised on the 19th and 20th of October 2013. The ceremony for the Southern sector took place at the Exhibition Centre of the National Theatre while the main auditorium of Takoradi Polytechnic was the venue for the Western Sector.
The Southern Sector of IDL consists of students from Ho, Accra and Koforidua while that of the Western Sector consists of students from Takoradi, Cape Coast and Tarkwa. In all, 1,907 students made up of 952 postgraduates and 955 undergraduates from the Southern sector and 206 students made up of 147 postgraduates and 59 undergraduates from the Western Sector were matriculated.
During the ceremony, Professor W. O Ellis, Vice Chancellor of KNUST, said KNUST continued to set the pace in tertiary education in Ghana especially by introducing stress-free systems for their students. Noticeable among these systems are the online application for fee-paying and parallel programmes as well as hall accommodation booking. He also added that another initiative which was being implemented this academic year was the introduction of Bulk SMS and special Voice Bundle Services. This was to help enhance and offer interactive and real time communication as well as reduce paper/ poster notices on our campus.
He went on to say that the IDL, in an attempt to provide efficient and satisfactory service delivery to our cherished students, have acquired a 22-acre plot of land for the construction of permanent lecture rooms and offices at Pokuase in Accra. The Pokuase project was about 70% complete and would hopefully be ready for use by January 2014. IDL hoped to establish a learning centre and administrative offices in each of the regional capitals.
He was happy to add that the E- Learning Centre which was introduced recently currently ran four postgraduate programmes on the E- Learning online platform with facilitated face-to-face sessions to ensure effective learning. He added that an additional Video Conferencing facility was being put up to ensure the smooth running of online lectures by facilitators.
In his final statement, he urged that plans were also under way to admit students into the KNUST-Zoomlion Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management (KISWAM), an affiliate campus at the Zoomlion premises at Adjiriganom near East Legon. He concluded that KNUST is currently admitting students for special five-semester top-up programmes in 12 undergraduate programmes as well as five postgraduate programmes via the distance learning mode.
Click to view images of the 2013/2014 IDL Matriculation
