This, he explained, was the only panacea to the high attrition rate confronting many of the technical universities in the country.

Prof Adinkrah-Appiah expressed worry that many lecturers of the University have left for the traditional universities because of poor conditions of service after they had been sponsored by the University through its internally-generated fund to obtain their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees.

"We are aware that government is doing all it could to improve the conditions of service of the technical university staff, we urge government to speed up the process and to ensure there will be no differentials, as far as salaries and allowances are concerned, between the technical university staff and the traditional university staff", he stressed.

Speaking at the 12th congregation ceremony of the University, held in Sunyani, Prof Adinkrah-Appiah explained the institution was working hard to introduce new programmes that would help to achieve its mandate to propel the holistic development of the country.

A total of 1,554 students were awarded with degrees and certificates including Bachelor of Technology (B-Tech), Higher National Diploma (HND) and other Diplomas in Engineering, Applied Science and Technology, Applied Arts as well as Business and Management disciplines.

The VC announced a number of four-year B-Tech programmes have been submitted for clearance by National Council for Tertiary Education and subsequent accreditation by National Accreditation Board.

Other innovative programmes are being developed to attract more applicants to the University to help absorb more prospective students from the government's Free Senior High School (FSHS) flagship programme next academic year and to make STU a University of choice.

Prof Adinkra-Appiah expressed the hope that these four-year B-Tech programmes would be approved for the University to commence at the beginning of next academic year in August 2020.

"It is our expectation that the introduction of the four-year B-Tech programmes will put the University on a level playing field with other universities across the globe to compete for students both locally and internationally", he said.

 Mr Stevens Siaka, the Deputy Bono Regional Minister, said government's FSHS programme has come to stay and implored the academia to help find lasting solutions to challenges confronting its implementation.

He said the programme has removed barriers that hindered many Ghanaians from accessing quality education and entreated the University's authorities to expand its infrastructure.

This would position the University well to enable it to admit more qualified students next academic year from the first batch graduates of the FSHS programme, Mr Siaka added.