Industry Alex Abayateye, Outgoing President of the Students Representative Council (SRC), has called on government and industry to forge stronger collaborations with academia for specific sponsorship programmes for students.
He made this passionate appeal on the side-lines of the 17th graduation ceremony of Regional Maritime University.
“If you quite remember, when we visited the studios of Metro TV recently, one of our teaching assistants, Mr. George Obeng, stated clearly how he couldn’t even obtain a scholarship to read a Masters in Naval Architecture and had to go through the treadmill.
I would encourage government to liaise with the industry – such as the Ghana Maritime Authority, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, MPS Tema Terminal 3 and the like – to sponsor specific disciplines to go and study and then improve upon the Maritime Industry.
One of the areas I’m particular about is Naval Architecture. It is hard getting a scholarship to read Naval Architecture because the tuition fee for reading the course outside Ghana is very expensive – which an individual cannot take care of, so it will need a corporate body to help the individual. Look at our innovative projects, most of them need funding; most of them need a push so the students will be able to take it further. This is what I’m requesting from government, the industry and the university,” he said.
