Dr Afun inducted as Ho Polytechnic Rector

Ho, Nov 13, GNA-Dr Jakpasu Victor Kofi Afun was on Friday inducted a= s Rector of the Ho Polytechnic as he promised to turn the institution into the "most visible and most attractive in Ghana to applicants and benefactors"=

during his four year tenure.

Dr Afun, until his appointment, was Senior Lecturer at the Departmen= t of Crop and Soil Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), listed a 10-point strategy to attain his mission. They include listing the Institute on the Information Highway, updat= ing and realigning curricula, long-term industrial attachment for students, systematic manpower recruitment and motivation and Infrastructure development. The rest are creating more avenues for sports and recreation, aesthe= tic beef-up of the Polytechnic, vigorous generation of funds from within and the promotion and marketing of developed technologies.

Dr Afun, who hails from Kpando-Dafor in the Volta Region, said a website for the Polytechnic would put its capacities right before the wor= ld and make linkages fluid while longer practical attachments for students would make them more functional. He said realigning of courses would match with relevance to developmental needs of the country and the world. Dr Afun, whose tenure commenced in October, this year, said certain activities of the engineering and hospitality and tourism departments wou= ld be commercialized to enable them generate about 50 per cent of their budg= et. Professor Anthony Adimado, Chairman of the Polytechnic Governing Council, did the investiture and administered the oaths while Bishop Fran= cis Lodonu of the Ho Catholic diocese sanctified it. Dr Komla Dzisi, the Past Rector, who was said to have declined a further two-year term on personal grounds, said hallmarks of his tenure h= ad been peace on the students front, upgrading of staff qualifications and raising of student population from 2,500 in 2006 to 5,000 in 2010. He said the Polytechnic was also now offering degree programmes in t= he technologies and that some relevant non-tertiary industrial programmes ha= d been reintroduced. Dr Dzisi said a staff evaluation process had also been introduced to=

make promotions flexible. Rectors of sister Polytechnics, heads of stakeholder institutions in=

education, including the Accreditation Board and GETfund and families of the new and old Rector attended the investiture.