The College of Engineering (CoE) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi has awarded some outstanding students at the college as well as some Industrial partners who have supported the College’s activities at the 9th Students and Industrial Partners Awards.
The ceremony which was held at the Kumapley Auditorium was themed ‘KNUST at 70; Academia-Industry Relations to produce graduates with 21st Century skills.
According to the Provost of the College, Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah, the initiative, since its inception in 2012, has been one of the ways the College has adopted to encourage its students and acknowledge industrial partners for their enormous contribution and support to the College. ‘In the case of students, it is to encourage them to work harder in their quest for academic excellence while Industrial Partners are acknowledged for their enormous contribution and support to the College in the training of the students, he stated.
Professor Adom-Asamoah added that the three award categories for each of the fifteen undergraduate programs were the Excellent Student Award, Best Student Award, and the Most Improved Student. According to him, the Excellent Student Award was given to students who attained a Cumulative Weighted Average (CWA) of 75.00 and above. The Best Student Award was awarded to the continuing student who had the highest CWA mark at the end of the 2020/2021 academic year and the Most Improved Student was awarded to the student who made the highest incremental change in CWA. He noted that Special Students Awards had been instituted by individuals or corporate bodies for students who met certain set criteria.
He expressed his profound gratitude to the industrial partners for their continuous support in diverse ways in improving the quality of students graduating from college. ‘Our partners are key collaborators in our effort to improve teaching and learning such as providing placements for students’ vocation training, refurbishing facilities, and donating equipment and accessories for teaching and learning.
The Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo noted that the partnership with the industry represents key steps to achieving the University’s mission of equipping students with the requisite entrepreneurial skills through internships to become fit and ready for the industry. He further encouraged the awardees to constantly demonstrate excellence in their studies and life.
Delivering the keynote address, Ing. Fred Asare-Yeboah, Chairman, Board of Associated Consultants Ltd. stated that an engineer must possess some skillsets. "An engineer must be innovative, creative, a critical thinker and a problem solver." These, he said are 21st Century skills that they must have to explain science and technology inventions and related activities appropriately. He further suggested to the management of the CoE to reorganise the curriculum to produce graduates with such skill sets.
Ing. Asare-Yeboah was hopeful that with this continuous partnership, students will become fit and ready for the corporate world.
Some Students were also recognised in the ‘Special Students Awards Category’ awarded by prominent alumni and organisations. Mr. Ahorsu Etornam Komla and Miss Cobblah Esi Odaawa who emerged as the best graduating male and female students received the Professor F.O Kwami Award and Professor K.A. Andam Award, respectively. Also, Mr. Asare Atta Eric received the Ghana Institution of Engineers Award for emerging as the overall most improved student in the college.
The following industry partners: Virtual InfoSec Africa, Process and Plant Automation Limited, Asogli Power, Newmont Ghana Ltd, West Rod, and Wire Ltd, Ghana National Gas Company, Dr. Kofi Agyemang, License Surveyor’s Association of Ghana (LiSAG), Toyota Ghana Ltd and AngloGold Ashanti among others received citations in recognition of their support to the College.
