The KNUST prirotize vehicles over acadamic facilities

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The mission of any university is to advance knowledge through quality teaching and research that would benefit the society. Indeed the quality of research is a cardinal parameter in measuring the standard of a university. Undoubtedly, academic facilities play crucial role in a university’s work.
The outputs of our universities have, in recent times, become a topical issue due to several factors, amongst which is the performance of our graduates. Some schools of thought have argued that lack of academic facilities is bedeviling the progress of academic work in our schools. This assertion, amongst others, culminated in the establishment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND), the cost-sharing policy and the fee-paying components in our universities. These interventions are meant to complement internally generated funds (IGFs) and government subventions so that our universities could have a considerable revenue base to pursue their individual missions.
It is disheartening to observe that the KNUST, instead of using this revenue to advance their mission, is rather interested in buying vehicles. It is sad to learn that almost all the laboratories and workshops in the university have deteriorated to abysmal standards. No meaningful scientific work can be carried out in the university because of the standard of the labs and workshops. Sadly, students of this university pay higher Academic Facility User Fees (AFUFs) compared to their counterparts in public universities in Ghana.
The authorities at KNUST have prioritized vehicles over academic facilities. They are concerned with riding in luxurious cars to the detriment of facilities to advance knowledge. Fresh cars were bought for the Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor and the Registrar when they assumed office recently, barely a year. The office of the Vice Chancellor already has a Toyota Land Cruiser which the VC alone uses. The new sleek Mercedes Benz bought for the VC would be part of his take home package when he is leaving office.
On December 7, 2007, there was a TENDER in the Daily Graphic that sought to ask companies to bid for the supply of 4x4 Cross Country Station Wagon for the Registrar and a number of vehicles to other units of the university. The chaplaincy etc is to enjoy 4x4 Pickups. This TENDER is different from the one that appeared in the August 22, 2007 issue of the Daily Graphic that was seeking companies to supply six 4x4 Station Wagons for Provosts of the six colleges and other vehicles for some units of the university. Meanwhile before restructuring of the faculties into six compact colleges, the deans who eventually became the Provosts had saloon cars which they still use. Apart from that there are a number of pickups the faculties’ uses and some of the colleges have pickups for the offices of the Provosts. The College of Science, for instance, has two pickups for the office of the Provost.
There is a progressive shift in the university’s main agenda with this phenomenon. It is worrying that after buying a luxurious Audi for the Registrar, a new Cross Country Wagon is to be bought for him. Also has the KNUST now become a sectarian university where funds generated internally would be used to purchase vehicles for a particular sect? If not then other religious bodies on campus should also demand their share of the booty. The university has so many vehicles that the large shed at the transport yard cannot accommodate all so the remaining ones, mostly buses, are left to the mercy of the weather at a place near the university hospital.
The KNUST needs vehicles but not when facilities for academic work have deteriorated to abysmal level and, in fact, not at the rate where vehicles are bought like newspapers. Apart from the College of Engineering, all the colleges do not have any functional laboratories and workshops. Even at the College of Engineering, not all the departments have good labs. Some labs in the Faculty of Pharmacy have now been turned to lecture rooms whiles six students could be seen around a single microscope in Theoretical and Applied Biology lab. Students at the then College of Art stay in dilapidated rooms for their academic work whiles those at the Faculty of Social Sciences are packed like sardines in classrooms at the Central Classroom Block (CCB). It is not uncommon to find students struggling on chairs and stools during lecture and lab sessions.
It is pathetic to observe that the structures at the then College of Art cannot match some primary schools at the countryside. Meanwhile the students pay Academic Facility User Fees yearly. One cannot understand what the monies collected from these students are used for since they buy everything themselves including the materials they use for their works. The project to relocate them has been abandoned for no apparent reason. What about students at the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources; about seven hundred and fifty students have access to eight computers! If a sister university which charge less AFUF comparable to the KNUST could make, aside other monumental projects to enhance teaching and learning, a turnkey tender for supply of equipment for its Faculty of Science and College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences then the KNUST’s turnkey tender for supply of equipment to only the College of Science is a disservice to its students and Ghanaians in general. Students at the KNUST were made to pay extra ten per cent on the AFUF that the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE) asked universities to charge. The university could do better if it stopped amassing luxurious vehicles. We cannot sit unconcerned for this to continue for it would mar the future of our dear nation.
The situation on campus should be a worry to all Ghanaians. Time and again academics have argued that students should be made to pay a lot more for their studies at the universities for what we pay in terms of AFUF is inadequate. Apart from the fact that this issue is debatable, the little we, students of the KNUST, pay is being misused by our administrators. The system now at the KNUST is ‘chop some and shut up’. As citizens of this nation, our taxes are used to support the university so that graduates that are churned out would be qualified enough to lead in the development of the country. With this canker eating deep into the university, it can be expected that graduates cannot match the standards expected of them and would consequently be failures in the society. Posterity would never forgive us if we fail to act. We must rise up and say enough is enough. The facts have been laid. The Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) should be mandated to investigate some of these issues. All must come on board to stop this mess.
In establishing the KNUST, the founding fathers envisaged a university that would be at the forefront in leading Ghana and Africa to intellectual and consequently economic prosperity. The foundation of this university was such that students would obtain the very best education comparable elsewhere around the globe. Fifty years plus five, this citadel of excellence is at the verge of collapse because of inept administration. We must therefore rise up to put a stop to it once and all.
We have a great burden on our shoulders; to sharpen the present in order to brighten the future. For now, our greatest tool is the unity that binds us. We rest not no matter the dispersal strategy and intelligence operatives who have deluged our territory. We can and must rise up to ensure that the right thing is done so that our generation and the future receive the finest education that would be a catalyst for the transformation of our country and continent. As we conclude the first part of the canker eating deep into the KNUST, we must be guided by what Karl Marx said ‘’ When we have chosen a vocation in which we can contribute most to humanity, burden should not bend us because they are sacrifice for all. Then we enjoy no meagre limited egoistic joy but our happiness belongs to millions’’. We want to engage in serious academic exercises so use the meagre funds to provide us academic facilities.