The Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region has held its maiden investiture with a call for support to enhance infrastructure to meet the growing student population for quality education delivery.
The university says it will require about US$100 million for infrastructure development and other Human resources to achieve its set goals.
Professor Philip Duku Osei, who is the first Vice-Chancellor of SDD-UBIDS since its name change from the former University for Development Studies (UDS), as well the Registrar of the University, Job Asante, were sworn into office by the Chairman of the SDD-UBIDS’ Governing Council, Kweku Yamoah Painstsil.
The Chairman, who expressed confidence in the two, said they have the competencies to oversee the development of the university to be among the best in the country.
He, therefore, called on the management of the University, traditional leaders, residents of Wa and students to give their maximum corporation to the leaders in the discharge of their duties for a worthy course.
He commended President Nana Akufo Addo for also seeing the conversion of the university to attract more investors into the region to contribute to the socio-economic development of the area.
The Vice-Chancellor Prof Duku Osei noted that, due to the growing student population with fewer infrastructure, there is the need to improve the situation to ensure effective and efficient management as well academic work and, therefore, requires that amount.
He said the huge infrastructure gap and lack of seed capital to run the university were the two major challenges facing the institution, adding that, the university envisages a student population of about 15,000 by 2024.
He said the University was committed to providing transformational services for the job market and therefore has designed an entrepreneurial skills programme for the students to add up to the already programmes being pursued.
This, he said, would enable them use the talent within them and the resource potentials available to create job avenues for themselves after school to complement government’s effort to curb youth unemployment in the country.
“Our intention is to create SD Dombo graduate who is exposed, analytical, critical thinker and employable. And to achieve the set goals, the academic board created a student carrier guidance centre in 2021 to enable the students access the needed assistance for their academic work he said.
He indicated that the university was charted to operate as an internationally acclaimed institution and had, thus, put in the necessary structures including setting up a directorate of international collaborations to enable it to achieve the needed results.
The Vice-Chancellor stated that the university has introduced four new academic programmes, namely the School of Law, Education and Livelong Learning, Social Science and Arts, and Faculty of Information and Communication Technology to promote academic excellence.
“We have also created a third-trimester programme of field training for the students among others,” he added.
The Registrar of the University, Job Asante also expressed gratitude to the government and management for the power imposed on them and assured them of doing their best for the growth of the university.
He called for the cooperation of the students for peaceful academic work on campus and advised them to desist from any indiscipline act that would distract their academic work.
Some students in an interview with the B&FT said they were happy about the event and appealed for more security on campus to prevent indiscipline and rampant theft.
Some also expressed the hope that the improvement of infrastructure would go a long way to enhance academic work.
