The Accra Technical University (ATU), has admitted 8,578 fresh students, the highest in its history, to pursue various courses in the institution.

They are made up of 1,617 Bachelor of Technology, 5,426 full time and part-time Higher National Diploma (HND) and 293 diploma students.

The rest were 928 non-HND and pre-HND students, as well as 314 students from the Military Academy and Training Schools (MATS).

All the matriculants were taken through the matriculation oath administered by the Registrar of the ATU, Mrs Sylvia B. Oppong Mensah, to signify their formal admission into the institution.

Addressing the virtual event, the Vice Chancellor of the ATU, Prof. Samuel Nii Odai said, “it is such a great joy to welcome into our great university this year the highest number of students in our history.”

Increase

He said in view of the increasing number of students, the governing council had directed the immediate development of the university’s second campus at Samsam Mpehuasem near Amasaman along the Accra-Nsawam Highway.

“For the first time this year, the engineering students will be having their practical workshops in the ultra-modern workshops on the campus. Our affiliation with MATS keeps growing from strength to strength,” he said.

Prof. Odai said the university treasured such a relationship and was putting in strategic measures to offer more studying opportunities to its friends from the Armed Forces.

MATS

In an address, the Commandant of the MATS, Major Gen. Charles Kodjo Awity, charged the fresh students to work hard to merit the various certificates that would be earned at the end of their respective programmes.

“I urge you to continuously add up to your knowledge base by reading beyond what you would be taught in the classroom to become abreast of time in this fast evolving technological world,” he said.

On the students from MATS, he said the purpose of their programmes in the military was to provide them the opportunity to understand vividly the nature of their core mandates in the services.