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 The University of Mines and Technology has held its third congregation with the conferment of degrees to graduates who completed their studies in 2011.
The ceremony which took place at Tarkwa was witnessed by people from all walks of life including a deputy minister of education, district chief executives, members of the university council, traditional leaders, corporate executives and parents and guardians.
In all, a total of 289 students were awarded various degrees with 65 of them receiving first class honours whilst 34 others were awarded Master of Science and Master of Philosophy degrees in their respect engineering programmes of study.
Addressing the congregation, Prof. Mireku-Gyimah, Vice Chancellor of University of Mines and Technology said the total number of students increased from 1441 to 1585 during the past year and indicated that out of the number, 168 constituting 10.6% were postgraduate students pursuing MSc, MPhil and PhD programmes.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah said the increase in student population represents 10% over the previous figure and opined that the university as a specialised engineering training institution cannot arbitrary increase student numbers without corresponding increase in facilities
He however said the university would continue to pursue gender mainstreaming agenda to encourage females to enroll in engineering programmes and noted that female population increased from 180 to 266, representing 15.3% of the total student population over the past year.
He stated that the university in its quest to become a centre of excellence in Ghana and Africa for producing world-class professionals in the field of mining technology and related disciplines attracted more foreign students from Nigeria, Benin, Sierra Leone, Gabon, La Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville and Chad.
Prof Mireku-Gyimah expressed his unhappiness that the university received only GH¢15 million constituting 26% of its total budgetary requirement of GH¢57 million. This, he said negatively affected the operational capability of the university in its strides to achieve operational and academic excellence.
He appealed to the government to make special yearly allocation of at least GH¢75 million for the development of the University for the training of graduates in engineering and science for national development.
The Vice Chancellor described the graduates as special breed of engineers and charged them to uphold the core values of the university which are knowledge, truth and excellence.
Hon Mahama Ayariga, a Deputy Minister of Education who represented the president as the guest speaker, lauded the role of the university in producing first class engineers in the mining and allied disciplines for national development.
He reiterated the commitment of the government to provide the necessary support to universities in the country to enable them fulfill their mandate of training manpower for the country.
The deputy minister commended the university for integrating ICT facilities in its teaching and learning activities and entreated other sister universities in the country to learn from UMaT.
There were other goodwill messages from University of South Australia and Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
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