The Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has challenged technical universities to chart a new path of research and innovation distinct from other universities.

 This new paradigm, he said, posed a huge responsibility and required leadership that had the vision to deliver optimum outcomes to shape the development landscape.

“The redefined mandate has been to provide higher education in engineering, science, technology-based disciplines, technical and vocational education and training, applied arts and related disciplines as stated in the Technical Universities Act, 2016,” Prof. Yankah said.

He was speaking at the investiture of the first substantive Vice-Chancellor of Sunyani Technical University in Sunyani on Saturday.

Professor Kwesi Yankah noted that skills development in vocational and technical training was what would transform Africa’s economies and drastically reduce unemployment.

“As technical universities, there is absolutely no need to be desperately seeking academic laurels and charting paths that are normally associated with traditional liberal arts universities…. Avoid following the ‘madding’ crowd towards the monotony of uniformity, but position yourselves toward the progressive path of differentiation and diversification,” Prof. Yankah said.

Outlining his vision for the university, Professor Adinkrah Appiah said management had set up a Strategic Plan Review Committee which was working to evaluate the successes and failures of the current strategic plan, and come out with a new five-year strategic plan, which would fit into the10-year development plan for the period 2020 to 2030.

He was positive that through this, the university will be re-positioned to utilise science, technology, engineering, technical and vocational education and training as well as applied arts to achieve its mandate as contained in the Technical Universities Act, Act 922.

The Governing Council of Sunyani Technical University at its sitting on September 26, 2019, accepted the recommendations of the Search Committee set up by the council and appointed Professor Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, a civil engineer as the first Vice-Chancellor of the Sunyani Technical University with effect from September 1, 2019.

Prior to his appointment, he was the interim Vice-Chancellor of the institution since 2016.

Prof. Adinkah-Appiah holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, MPhil and PhD degrees, in Civil Engineering from the same university.

He was employed as an instructor at the Building Technology Department of the then Sunyani Polytechnic in 2001 and was appointed as a lecturer in 2006 and later promoted to the rank of senior lecturer at the Civil Engineering Department in 2012, and subsequently as an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering in 2016.