Focus on demand-driven programmes, Otumfuo tells Ghanaian universities
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has asked Ghanaian universities to focus on demand-driven programmes founded on science and technology to make graduates employable and reduce the country's stock of unemployed graduates.
He said universities should liaise with industry to develop tailor-made courses to fill the human resource gap.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu gave the advice at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi last Wednesday, when officials of the Dominion University College based in Accra called on him to congratulate him on his 20th anniversary of acceding to the Golden Stool.
The university’s team led by the President of the University, Prof. Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, also included the Council Chairman, Prof. Felix Hammond, Lawyer Elsie Appau-Klu and Dr Rita Owusu Amankwah.
The Asantehene said he was enthused about the number of postgraduate programmes being run by the university which hitherto only existed outside the country.
He said some of its distinct programmes and strong information technology base made it a unique and most sought after university.
Centre
The university's Centre for Product Design for Development is almost through with the manufacturing of a solar vehicle with the intention of producing it in commercial quantities for the automobile industry.
It is also converting plastic waste into bio-fuel and helping to protect the environment.
Prof. Nuamah
The President of the university, Prof. Nuamah who led a team to produce Ghana's first electric car at the then Kumasi Polytechnic three years ago, said, the university had rolled out 18 master’s programmes and four PhDs with the intention of introducing law and nursing programmes soon.
He said plans were afoot to move some of the postgraduate programmes affiliated to the Cape Coast University to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to ease the pressure on the former.
Dominion University College, started some six years ago under the Christian Action Faith Ministry, is now under the Africa Leadership Institute.