Kumasi, Sept. 20, GNA - Authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), have introduced a programme in Meteorology and Climate to train students in the two areas for the sustainable management of the ecology.

Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, Vice- Chancellor of the University, who disclosed this, said the move was in response to the recent global climate crisis, which was a threat to the ecosystem and biodiversity. He was speaking at the 2008 matriculation ceremony of the KNUST in Kumasi on Saturday.

In all, 8,258 students were admitted to read undergraduate and post- graduate programmes.

Professor Adarkwa said out of the total admission 239 students were from less- endowed schools and that those students were from the Volta, Brong- Ahafo

and Upper East Regions whilst the rest came from deprived schools across the country. He said the University had also introduced new undergraduate programmes in Real Estate, Agribusiness, Agricultural Biotechnology, Landscape Design and Management, Dairy and Beef Science, Industrial Engineering and Biomedical Engineering as well as post- graduate programme in Actuarial Science, stressing that these programmes would take effect from the 2009/2010 academic year.

The Vice- Chancellor indicated that these programmes were designed to provide adequate opportunities for the country and Africa's youth to enable them attain high quality science and technology education, for the benefit of the continent in general. On security, he urged the students to be security conscious in their endeavours, saying, as much as possible students should make it a point to board only the specially embossed KNUST taxis and shuttle buses, and also walk in groups whilst they desist from openly displaying valuable items such as mobile phones, laptop computers and calculators. He cautioned the students to endeavour to abide by the University's regulations in their academic pursuits for the achievement of their aims.