Resolve UTAG’s concerns to restore academic activities quickly – UMaT VC

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology, Prof. Richard Kwasi Amankwah, has described as unfortunate the delay by various stakeholders in resolving the concerns of the striking public university teachers.

Prof. Amankwah, who expressed his concern during UMaT’s 17th virtual matriculation for 2,393 first year students at Tarkwa, said the unresolved UTAG strike has completely stopped academic activities on campus.

He therefore called on responsible stakeholders to urgently resolve the concerns.

“It is rather unfortunate that the strike action embarked on by the University Teachers Association of Ghana, UTAG, has continued this far and halted academic activities in all public universities in the country. We plead with all concerned parties to expedite action with regard to UTAG’s demands so that academic activities can resume to normalcy,“ he said.

The UMaT Vice Chancellor however challenged the 2021/2022 matriculants not to just waste away the UTAG strike period idling.

“As we hope that an amicable solution to the demands of UTAG will be met in the shortest possible time, I encourage you to seize this rare opportunity to explore ways to make your stay in UMaT a success. My challenge to you matriculants is to bring your intellect and enthusiasm to bear to solve some economic, social and environmental challenges that we continue to face.”

“Learn as many new things as possible; many of which may seem irrelevant for now, but may lead to your success in the near future. For the postgraduate students, let us remember that it is all about problem solving and adding new concepts to existing knowledge. Do well to solve significant problems, which have the potential to influence the world positively,“ he added.

While giving the breakdown for the 17th matriculation, Prof. Richard Kwasi Amankwah revealed the UMaT has this academic year been given the nod by the Education Ministry to rollout two novel programmes for the needy and in engineering.

“UMaT has been selected to pilot the Ministry of Education’s novel Engineering Scholarship for the Needy Programme and 50 of such students who were identified in several communities around the country will be sponsored by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Ltd, BOST. In addition, UMaT was nominated to pioneer the novel Non-science to Engineering Programme and we are piloting the programme with 100 students.”

“We are grateful to the Minister of Education for the trust he has in UMaT…At the postgraduate level, 106 students were admitted during this second admission season, bringing the total number to 492, which is 9% of the student population. The total student population is currently above 5,300. We admitted only 37 foreign students this year and will do well to increase the numbers in the years ahead,” he noted.

Out of the 2,393 matriculants for the 2021/2022 academic year, 21% are females, and for the first time, UMaT admitted Diploma students who intend to top-up their education in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.