The Ministry of Culture and Science of the North-Rhine Westphalia State in Germany has granted 200,000 Euros to two technical universities to enhance technical education in the country.
The grant would boost the capacity of the Koforidua Technical University (KTU) and the Ho Technical University to embark on five- year projects to improve the quality and relevance of courses they offered.
It would also help them to jointly undertake research work with the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences (HSHL) in Germany and develop relevant networks among themselves and business partners.
The grant followed a joint proposal the three institutions submitted through the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) to the North-Rhine Westphalia State to support technical universities in Ghana.
The Vice-Chancellor of the KTU, Prof. Smile Dzisi, made this known in Koforidua on Wednesday during a capacity-building workshop organised by Hamm-Lippstadt University for heads of departments and deans of KTU.
According to her, the KTU signed a memorandum of understanding with the HSHL on February 27, 2017 to allow the two institutions collaborate and develop a joint curriculum and degree programmes.
Per the agreement, she said the students of the two institutions would undertake exchange programmes to gain international exposures to be able to fit easily into any job market.
Prof. Dzisi said as a result of the partnership with the German university, the KTU had developed a bachelor’s programme in mechatronics engineering, which she said was at an advanced stage of approval.
Sounding optimistic that the university was likely to commence the new programme in September 2019, she said “It is the first of its kind in Ghana.”
“The collaboration has helped us to get the necessary book to be able to run this programme successfully and about 10 of our staff members have visited the HSHL in Germany and delivered lectures as well as got so much acquainted with their high class laboratory and also learn a lot of practical lessons from them.”
She added that the KTU staff also visited a number of industries in Germany to enable them to acquire skills to offer practical skills training to KTU’s students.
The vice-chancellor gave the assurance that the partnership would allow the KTU, a community-focused institution, to contribute its quota to the development of New Juaben and the entire Eastern Region.
For his part, the President of Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Professor Dr Klaus Zeppenfeld said the collaboration had begun to yield fruitful results.
He said the collaboration would be used to encourage students with innovative ideas to come up with proposals, saying that “In Germany we have a lot of funding companies to support German-African innovation programmes.”
“After the MOU we have a lot of research packages, collaborate and visit each other and it has been great,” he said.
Prof. Zeppenfeld encouraged students with innovative ideas to come up with proposals, adding that there were several German companies that were ready to support German-African innovation programmes with funding.
FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA
