Sunyani: Energy University Welcomes 2,637 New Students

The University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) admitted 2,637 students for 2018/2019 academic year, Professor Harrison Kwame Dapaah, the Vice Chancellor (VC) announced at its seventh matriculation ceremony on Saturday in Sunyani.

The number has brought the total student population to 6,501, the VC said and added that out of those admitted, 2,117 were undergraduates with 655 females, representing 31 per cent and 1,462 males, which was 69 per cent.

He said on postgraduate admissions, 224 applicants were admitted to pursue Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctoral programmes, saying that 26, indicating 12 per cent were females while 198 signifying 88 per cent were males.

A total of 296 applicants were admitted into the Weekend programmes with 60 (20 per cent) being females and 236 (80 per cent) being males, Prof. Dapaah said and hinted that it was the goal of the University to increase total postgraduate enrolment to about 15 per cent of the total student population in the near future.

The VC said the University was poised to provide access to University education to as many qualified applicants as possible, but it was constrained due to inadequate academic and residential facilities for staff and students.

Prof. Dapaah however, expressed regret that a number of projects, which could have put a total of 24 lecture rooms at the disposal of the University, had come to a standstill.

He cited among them a separate two storey and four storey lecture blocks and a 1,600-capacity student hostel building-all under construction, as well as the construction of permanent facilities at Dormaa-Ahenkro to house the School of Agriculture and Technology.

The VC said in spite of dwindling resources, the University had managed to stay afloat to deliver on its mandate, assuring that the Management would continue to be prudent and make judicious use of the University's meagre resources.

On that note the University had acquired 1000 pieces of classroom furniture (tables and chairs) to help ease seating challenges in its lecture halls to create enabling environment for academic work, he added.

Prof. Dapaah exhorted the students to let the sky be their limit in terms of exercising the mind, reminding them though, that the distance between matriculation and convocation ceremonies 'is quite wide and it is important that the journey ends successfully'.

He therefore urged them to be regular and punctual to lectures, carrying out all their assignments, shunning deviant behaviours and other vices that could expose them to dangers and emphasised that 'the UENR has zero tolerance for occultism, any form of hooliganism and corruption'.

The VC stressed the need for the students to avoid committing crimes at the University, warning that three offences-cheating during examination, stealing and physical/sexual assault were grievous and when committed and found culpable, the resultant effect 'is outright dismissal with possible prosecution by the Police'.