Lack of endowment and support packages for prospective postgraduate students compel Ghanaians to abandon domestic education.
According to Provost of the College of Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, Prof Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko, only nine percent of his over eleven thousand students are willing to pursue further studies in Ghanaian institutions.
This he says, should be a cause for concern.
The United States Embassy in Ghana has disclosed a record-breaking 6,468 Ghanaians studied in the US in 2022-2023, representing a 31.6% increase in previous enrollment numbers.
Ghanaian students earned nearly $9 million in scholarships to more than 700 higher educational institutions in all 50 states of the US.
Provost of the College of Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Prof Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko, is concerned about the insufficient endowment support to attract students to pursue further degree programmes in Ghana.
“Elsewhere, in North America and Europe, they have funding and it attracts the majority of our students. This is critical for our national development. So the endowment fund was established to support this strategy. There’s no support for post-graduate education.
“Postgraduate enrollment is low when compared to our strategic plan. As a college, we find it difficult to attract postgraduate students because we don’t have the funding to provide scholarships and research support,” he said.
The provost was speaking in appreciation of a donation of one million cedis from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) to the college’s endowment fund.
GRIDCo donated GHS 250,000 to the College for the conversion of the Levine Hall into an ultramodern conference facility, aimed at enhancing a conducive teaching and learning experience.
The Levine Hall has been out of use due to its state of disrepair, and is set to undergo a complete makeover.
“We are very grateful for this gesture from GRIDCo. Their donation first to the endowment fund will allow for many people to receive further education here under this college. Similarly, the donation to our modern boardroom is one that we appreciate very much,” he said.
He therefore appealed to the alumni and other corporate entities to support the fund.
Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, Ing. Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi, said the gesture reaffirms and strengthens the company’s long-term partnership with the institution.
GRIDCo has an existing collaboration with KNUST.
GRIDCo as an engineering institution, most of our engineers, including the chief himself, are products of this University. Our discussion ended that the college is trying to modernize one of its boardrooms into a modernise boardroom. So the Chief Executive made a promise for which we are donating today in that regard,” he said.
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