The new Vice Chancellor of the Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University, Professor Elias Kunedeb Sowley has underscored the necessity for the media in the Upper West Region to partner the University he has taken charge of to succeed.
Professor Sowley said the nature of reports put out by the media about the institution will determine how much support it will get and also influence how many people would be interested in furthering their education at the school.
“I think negativity is not very helpful, particularly when we do not check out facts. As stakeholders [media], you have a role to play.
The way you project this university will determine how much support we get, how much progress we make. We want you, as partners in development, to help project the university positively,” he said.
He was speaking at a Press Encounter at Wa. The meeting was to introduce the new management of the University after its conversion from a Polytechnic to a Technical University in accordance with the Technical Universities Act 2016, Act 922.
In August last year, the then Wa Polytechnic was converted to the Wa Technicl University. The institution was later renamed after Dr. Hilla Limann.
The conversion of the institution thus brought the need for new management staff to be recruited. Included in the new list of management staff recruited are the Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor, Director of Finance and Registrar. During the interaction with the media, The Vice Chancellor of the Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University, Professor Elias Kunedeb Sowley mentioned that infrastructure, particularly the school hostel facility is top on his agenda.
“On the hostel facility, that is high on my agenda. I find it very strange for a university like this not to have a hostel facility. The only hostel project that started stalled on the way. In fact, some people do not even want to stay in private places, they want to be in official university accommodation. As a university student, they is also a culture in the university halls of residence which is part of the learning; it is the social bit where you network with your colleagues. I feel that some of our colleagues are missing some of that experience,” he said.
The Registrar of the Institution, Vitus Songotuah mentioned that to attract prospective students to the school, the institution has forwarded a number of new courses to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) for approval.
“We have gone to GTEC, we have submitted a number of programs for accreditation at various stages. We have four of them at the Program Technical Administrative Approval, we also have four of them which have been revised and resubmitted for final approval,” he explained.
Also present at the media encounter were the Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Baba Insah and the Assistant Registrar In-Charge of Public Relations Zakaria Adbul-Rahaman.
Story by Mark Smith
