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The Bolgatanga and Wa polytechnics have now been converted into technical universities.

This brings to 10 the number of technical universities in the country.

Parliament on Thursday night, April 2, 2020 amended the Technical Universities Act (922) which has effectively converted the Bolgatanga Polytechnic and the Wa Polytechnic in the Upper West Region to technical universities.

The Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922) came into force in 2016 to convert qualified polytechnics to technical universities to provide higher education in engineering, science and technology based disciplines, technical and vocational education and training, applied arts and related disciplines.

Following the unfortunate development, management of the institution embarked on a massive facelift agenda to enable them to meet the criteria.

Challenge

However, eight out of the then 10 polytechnics in the country were converted to the status of technical universities which started at the beginning of 2016/17 academic year.

The Bolgatanga and Wa Polytechnics were not elevated to university status because they could not meet the criteria for conversion at the time.

This affected enrolment and revenue of the two institutions.

Reaction

Reacting to Parliament’s decision, the Rector of Bolgatanga Polytechnic in the Upper East Region, Professor Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, stated that following the elevation of the polytechnic to a technical university status, a committee has been put in place to help carry out rigorous rebranding and marketing of the institution.

He noted that the committee had also been tasked to come out with effective proposals that would also ensure that the Bolgatanga Technical University became more visible both locally and internationally with emphasis on “being electronically visible globally”.

Prof Alnaa made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga on the elevation of the polytechnic and its implications in the running of the institution.

Transition

Prof Alnaa further pointed out that before the Bolgatanga Polytechnic could fully operate as a technical university, there were certain procedures or transition that it had to go through.

The Rector said for instance that currently the staff were appointed per the Polytechnic procedures which must change because the staff would be required to seek reappointment for positions under the university procedures to be supervised by the National Council for Tertiary Education(NCTE) established by Act 454 of 1993.

Furthermore, he said a University Governing Council must also be put in place instead of the current Polytechnic Governing Council.

Changes

Prof Alnaa said owing to the conversion, a number of things would have to change to conform to the new status of the institution.

They are in the areas of enrolment, classroom infrastructure, introduction of new courses and expansion of time table for lectures, improvement in the numbers and qualifications of the institution’s human resource base, requirement for more vehicles to enhance smooth running of the university, transformation of the front view and signage to reflect its new status, among other things.

Touching on enrolment, Prof Alnaa explained that the authorities would admit more students to double the students population from the current 1,500 to 3,000 students for the 2020/2021 academic year.

“The authorities are also embarking on massive renovation of all existing structures and the construction of new ones to give meaning to the conversion,” he observed.

He said a modern lecture hall with offices attached would be needed because currently there were no offices for students to privately interact with their heads of department if they were facing some challenges in their studies.

The Rector further intimated that currently, timetable for students had been designed to enable them to close lectures by 4:00 p.m. each day but that would change with the holding of evening lectures which would ensure that students started lectures by 7:30a.m. and close for lectures latest by 9:00p.m. each day.

Lectures

Additionally, weekend lectures would be organised to take care of the many Higher National Diploma(HND) top up programmes in all the departments.

In the area of human resource development, Prof Alnaa noted that the Polytechnic needed between 180 and 200 staff to be able to run the technical university smoothly.

He revealed that about 30 of its staff had gone for further studies both home and abroad and when they returned it would also help to beef up the staff strength of the institution, adding that “a lot of the staff have also gone on retirement, while others “have passed on and some have resigned".

The Rector pointed out that the authorities were keeping an eye on the engineering department which currently did not have enough programmes, saying that department alone would require 31 staff with 20 being academic staff.

Prof Alnaa said the authorities would introduce six new courses at the HND level and five new four-year degree programmes. That, he said, required that the faculties and administrative systems in the polytechnic were redesigned.

Sadly, he noted that the Deans of the HND programmes did not have secretaries because for now “they are their own secretaries”.

On books for the library, Prof Alnaa indicated that the authorities of the institution had already purchased about GH¢50,000 worth of books to restock and upgrade the polytechnic’s library.

He, however, said the books were being processed before it would be put in circulation.

Furthermore, the institution is currently running the virtual library and the e-library systems which afforded students the opportunity of using their smart or android phones to look for books online and subsequently conduct their research or read materials on any subject.

On transportation,the rector revealed that the polytechnic currently had about nine vehicles made up of Sport Utility Vehicles(SUVs), buses, pick ups, and mini vans.

He said the situation demanded that the fleet of cars were increased for the smooth running of academic work in the institution.