Koforidua Polytechnic starts an off-campus non-residential programme

Koforidua, Dec. 16, GNA- The Koforidua Polytechnic has started an off-campus non-residential programme to help reduce congestion of students on the main campus.

The distance education project, which is known as the Doorstep Programme, the Polytechnic have started teaching Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes in Accountancy and Marketing at Akim Oda and Nkawkaw and this year admitted 41 students unto the programme.

This was disclosed by the Principal of the Polytechnic, Dr. George Afrane at its 11th Matriculation at Koforidua on Saturday. He said this year, the Polytechnic admitted 683 students to read HND programmes and 363 students for the non-HND programmes. Dr. Afrane said from next academic year, the polytechnic would establish a faculty of engineering which would offer programmes in HND in Automotive Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems Engineering. He explained that, while the polytechnic was increasing its intake and adding new programmes, the institute was still insist on quality education and products to avoid the situation where many of the graduates from the tertiary institutions in the country fails to deliver because of the poor training they received at school.

Dr. Afrane explained that to achieve the desire of the polytechnic, the institute was looking for sustainable ways of improving the service conditions of teaching and administrative staff in order to attract competent staff to teach and manage the institution. He said the polytechnic was also taking measures to ensure that it improves its facilities and attract the best students from the secondary schools.

Dr. Afrane said next academic year, the polytechnic would offer scholarships to students with single-digit aggregates who decide to pursue engineering courses and said the institute would also limit the number of students admitted into each programme and those admitted on protocol basis.

The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Mr. Paul Effah said among the critical factors which would be used to judge the performance of the Koforidua Polytechnic would be the quality of the skill training, the research and development activities and the extend to which the graduates from the polytechnic would be prepared for the job market. He advised the students who knew that they were not supposed to be at the polytechnic to "disappear " before they were flushed out.