Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and Association of African Universities pay a working visit to KEEP

On 12th June 2024, the National Facilitation Unit, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and, the Regional Facilitation Unit, the Association of African Universities (AAU) visited the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) team to discuss the progress of the project’s implementation and its sustainability measures.

The delegation from GTEC was led by Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, the Director-General. The other members from GTEC were Mr. Daniel Akansake, Mr. A.F. Mohammed Awal, Mr. Charles Mbeah, Dr. Aalangdong Edmund, Mr. Frank K. Nketia, and the delegation from AAU were in the persons of Dr. Sylvia Mkandawire, ACE Impact Project Manager and Mrs. Adeline Addy, Monitoring & Evaluations Officer.

The GTEC and AAU team paid a courtesy call on the Provost of the College of Engineering, Prof. Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko, who thanked them for their continuous support to the college and the University. Prof. Jerry John Kponyo, the Project lead for KEEP, Prof. Helen Essandoh, Director of The Regional Transport Research and Education Centre (TRECK), and Prof. Richard Boamah, Director of the Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre (RWESCK), joined the meeting with the Provost.

Prof. Biritwum Nyarko highlighted the college and the university’s initiative to sustain quality education.

He emphasised the critical need to offer enticing scholarships to talented students to prevent them from being drawn to universities abroad with attractive scholarship offers. He said this strategy is essential to combat brain drain and retain local talent.

He also advocated for the establishment of a technology park at the college to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, highlighting the need to scale up these efforts to enhance their impact.

Prof. Jinapor expressed his excitement about the significant progress the centres have made. He noted that to secure more local scholarships, it is crucial to communicate its importance and make a compelling case to the scholarship secretariat, encouraging them to allocate the necessary funds to the college.

Prof. Jinapor asked the centres to have a forum for a sustainability plan and build a strong relationship between them and GTEC.

Dr Sylvia Mkandawire admonished the centres to continue achieving the Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) even after maximising them under the funding phase. She underscored the importance of the university absolving the centres for sustainability.

Prof. Kponyo presented KEEP’s current implementation status as he highlighted the progress made in student enrolment, accreditation of programmes, research, innovation, internships and infrastructure.

He announced that KEEP stands out among the 9 ACEs in Ghana with an impressive Disbursement Linked Result (DLR) of 98%, according to performance statistics presented at the 11th ACE Impact Regional Workshop in April 2024.

The delegations were given a tour of the KEEP building and the various labs in the College. They interacted with researchers, faculty, students and interns on their projects and commended their efforts.