Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has called on technical universities to close the gap between academia and industry.
He said the upgrading of polytechnics to technical universities also amounted to an increase in responsibilities for the staff and managers of the technical universities.
Prof. Yankah was speaking at the 13th graduation ceremony of the Koforidua Technical University (KTU) at Koforidua, Eastern Region.
In all, the institution conferred Bachelor of Technology (B’ Tech) and Higher National Diploma (HND) certificates on 1,910 graduates.
He said government shall respond to the human resource and equipment needs of technical universities and urged them to strive to make their new designation more meaningful through curriculum content and research.
Prof. Yankah said the government would boost technical and vocational training alongside the free Senior High School (SHS) policy with the introduction of free technical and vocational education system.
He said the government’s agenda to transform Technical, Vocational Education Training (TVET) was aimed at raising the standard of technical and vocational education to turn out talented young men and women to meet the needs of industry and the country.
Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Mrs. Smile Dzisi, said student enrolment has increased, adding that the student population currently stands at 6,183, with 3,709 being males and 2,474 being females.
She said the university has added three Bachelor of Technology programmes and two HND programmes to its portfolio to help meet the needs of industry, which brings the total number of HND and Bachelor of Technology programmes to 21 and 13 respectively.
Source: GNA
