The Vice Chancellor of the Dr Hilla Limann Technical University, Professor Elias Nortaa Kunedeb Sowley, has appealed to government and other stakeholders for support, to complete stalled infrastructural projects at the educational institution.
He lamented that the institution was the only public university in the country without a single hostel accommodation for students on campus.
Prof. Sowley said the situation has resulted in low student enrolment, affected teaching and learning.
He made the call at an event to induct him into office as Vice Chancellor, and the graduation of 311 students, who had completed various courses at the school.
Prof. Sowley, who is the first Vice Chancellor since the Wa Polytechnic was converted to a technical university in 2020, and renamed, said “A three-storey facility with the capacity to accommodate about 800 students and 30 teaching assistants has stalled since the contract was first awarded in 2008”.
He other structures such as the Vice Chancellor’s residence, staff accommodation and a faculty building had stalled after they were initiated.
“The completion of the students’ hostel which is about 30 per cent complete would help resolve to some extent the lingering students’ accommodation problems”, Prof. Sowley said.
He explained that while waiting on government to come to the aid of the technical university, management was exploring other possible ways of tackling the infrastructure deficit.
Prof. Sowley said “We want to explore the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement to secure hostel accommodation for students such that individuals with the resources would construct the facilities, operate to cover cost and transfer to the university in due time”.
He asked interested stakeholders and entrepreneurs “to buy into the BOT idea and assist management resolve the accommodation problems faced by students of the institution.”
Meanwhile some past students, who spoke to the Ghanaian Times, recounted the difficulties they endured in order to get to campus for lectures.
They said sometimes they walked from their places of residence to campus because “tricycles known as Mahama Camboo are not forth coming.”
“The ‘camboo’ drivers charge very exorbitant fares due to the location of the campus with the excuse that it is difficult getting passengers along the way”, Ganiyu Abdul Basit, a past student, said.
He urged government to tackle the accommodation problem to protect students from landlords who collected exorbitant rent.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
