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The low students’ enrolment in the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) is negatively affecting the growth and development of the institution, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, has said.
Addressing the 11th Congregation of the university, he said the low enrolment had resulted in the low generation of internally generated funds (IGF), which was making it difficult for the university to make meaningful development using its IGF.
“The number of students graduating today shows that there is a challenge in student population which has made the university unable to honour payments of non-payroll allowances to staff and members of the Governing Council who continue to sacrifice to enable the university to run seamlessly,” he stressed.
A total of 578 students graduated, made up of 274 males and 304 females. 189 graduated with Bachelor of Technology, 346 also graduated with Higher National Diploma (HND), while 31 were awarded with professional diploma.
Out of the total number of students who graduated, 98 had first class, made up of 60 females and 38 males.
Prof. Alnaa called for further sacrifices from staff, students and other stakeholders to enable the university to achieve its mandate of training the needed human resource for industry and to contribute to national development.
He said the university had introduced several new programmes at the diploma, HND and B-Tech levels to attract more students, saying, “we are firming up plans to introduce master of science in agriculture, the university’s niche area”.
He added that the university was considering extending the competency based training (CBT) to all programmes in the near future, stressing, “I urge the public to take advantage of the wide range of programmes to develop the competencies and skills for job opportunities that may come their way”.
Touching on the recently launched 10-year strategic plan, the Vice-Chancellor said it was expected to guide the university and its activities in becoming a preferred technical university in the country.
He said the attainment of that ambitious vision was dependent on infrastructure, which was a paramount pillar in education delivery.
The Chairman of the university’s council, Prof. Francis A. Abantanga, called on the government to, particularly, award scholarship packages to students pursuing courses in technical, vocational education training (TVET) to attract students and address the low enrolment in the university.
