Two new faculties for Ghana Telecom Varsity

THE Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) has added two new faculties to its existing ones to provide Ghanaians world-class education in modern telecommunication network and systems.
The two faculties, the Faculty of Telecommunication Engineering and the Faculty of Informatics, would offer programmes at the certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate level to prepare students for professional practice in the telecom industry.
The Principal of GTUC, Dr Osei K. Darkwa, who made this known at the second anniversary of GTUC in Accra last Friday, said the programmes had been designed to provide students with a broadbased knowledge in computer science, information technology, and information sciences.
He reiterated the university's commitment to expand educational opportunities for Ghanaians who could apply Information Communication Technology (ICT) to solve the country's problems, adding that they intended to use technology to create a network of faculty, students, alumni and friends to encourage lifelong relationships among the growing GTUC community.
He said the theme for the occasion, "Two Years of Great Strides in Information Technology Education", demonstrated what they had been able to accomplished as a young tertiary institution within two years.
"We intend to make our campus a model of new learning environment for faculty and students to have access to the latest information and communication technologies," he stated, noting that they again intended to establish a Centre for Education and Technology in Africa (CETA) as a centralised and shared facility that would provide technology-oriented services to academic institutions interested in on-line learning.
He revealed that an alliance was being forged with all the 10 polytechnics in Ghana to enable GTUC to have physical presence in all the regions in Ghana.
"We believe that this path we intend pursuing will provide education to the broad mass of our people looking for opportunities to further their education," he added, noting that that path would enable students to easily access course materials and also facilitate team learning through the provision of on-line materials to enhance their academic work.
A member of the Council of GTUC, Professor Christine Kisiedu, said though two years in the course of an academic institution was not enough, GTUC had been able to achieve a great deal and could be justifiably proud.
She expressed her appreciation to the management and staff of the university, the Ghana Telecom (GT) Board and students for their assistance and hard work towards the great strides achieved by the university.
Dr Prosper K. Ashilevi, the Dean of the Faculty of Telecom Engineering, acknowledged the fact that the university would not have been able to achieve these great strides without the support of GT.
"Although we are only two years old, compared to other universities we are toddlers making great strides," he noted, stating that the future was bright for the university, the country and Africa as a whole.
The occasion was also used to launch two video conference centres for the university, a language centre, a reprographic centre, the GTUC Newsletter and a Bus donated by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
New reference books for the university's library was donated by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), after which a sod was cut for the construction of the GETFund technology and classroom complex.