University of Mines and Technology holds 11th graduation ceremony

Tarkwa (W/R), July 31 - GNA - The University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) Tarkwa, has held its 11th congregation for 494 students who have successfully completed their programme of study as compared to 504 students last year.

Five were awarded Doctor of Philosophy degrees, 29 received Master of Science and Philosophy degrees while 447 were awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in their respective engineering programmes.

A total of 76 students representing 15% of the graduating class obtained First Class Honours, 273 had Second Class (Upper Division), 92 obtained Second Class (Lower Division) and six had pass.

Six of the graduands received diploma certificates while three had certificates in English Language and four received certificates in Small Scale Mine and Quarry Administration.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, Chancellor of the University, delivering his address, indicated that last year he pleaded with the government to prioritise increasing the Academic Facility User Fees of students to enable public universities to continue to deliver on their mandate of providing quality education.

He said, regrettably, to date, there had been no increase in the facility user fees since the past three years, and this was particularly affecting the finances of smaller institutions like UMaT.

A differentiation in the implementation of the facility user fees increase in favour of such smaller but economically strategic universities, would be productive and welcomed, the chancellor said.

Former President Kufuor appealed to the Board of the Mineral Development Fund to release funds to speed up the construction and completion of the legacy projects of the university, especially the 4-storey faculty block, which is expected to house the increasing number of students that would enter the universities next year, as a result of the free Senior High School programme.

Furthermore, the chancellor urged the government to take a critical look at university teachers who are retained on contract to work in public universities after attaining the retirement age of 60 years.

“They tend to be “la crème de la crème” in our universities and are mostly the ones handling postgraduate programmes and supervising PhD students due to their experience and expertise” he said.

According to him, these professors normally attract research funds to the universities because of their international exposure and networks and added that, their presence also helped in the ranking of their universities with those of other nations.

He suggested that the government should make it possible for the universities to be able to retain the services of these valuable teaching personnel to at least the age of 70, as pertained in other countries.

The chancellor noted that in March 2019, some universities were given clearances to recruit new staff and therefore beseeched the Ministry of Education to quickly rationalize the process so that  other universities would get their clearances to enable them work efficiently.

He congratulated the graduands, and reminded them of the challenges ahead of them, stressing that, “It is your responsibility to remain focused and build on what you have attained here to purposefully and legitimately pursue your careers and ambitions as you go out into the world”.

The Vice Chancellor of UMaT, Professor Jerry Kuma expressed appreciation to the government for the support the university had received over the years.

He said the insufficient funding continue to be a major challenge for the university as far as teaching, research and learning are concerned.

There is always a huge funding gap between what the government supports the university with and what they generate from the collection of Academic Facility User Fees, meanwhile, they are expected to train their students to meet international standards, Prof. Kuma emphasized.

"However, if we have to become competitive globally as we aspire to be a world class university, then, efforts must be made by the government and other stakeholders to adequately provide the needed resources for this university" he noted.

Prof Kuma appealed to other stakeholders especially the multinational companies in the extractive industry to see it as a necessity to support UMaT to deliver on its mandate of producing world class professionals for the development of the country and the world at large.

He said "UMaT will like to make a passionate call to our mining companies to further set aside a percentage of their profits to support the provision of infrastructure and equipment for training of our students".

The overall best graduating student for this year was Mr Emmanuel Brempong Asiedu with a Course Weighted Average (CWA) of 87.93 from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

He received a certificate, a laptop computer and a cash prize of GH¢2,000.00 as his award.

Mr Samuel Alberto Tekyi, a 65 year-old who graduated with a certificate in Small Scale Mine and Quarry Administration expressed his joy in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, explaining that he decided to do the course to help streamline artisanal mining activities in Ghana.

GNA

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