Prof Darryl Pines, President of University of Maryland, USA who is an aerospace engineer and Nana Prof. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, Otumfuor Hiahene and Board Chair of Otumfuor Osei Tutu II Foundation have called on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson on March 20, 2023 at the Council Chamber.
Other members of the delegation were Marlon Washington Brown, Principal of Clarendon Global/Africa Vision Partners; Nana Afia Kobi Prempeh, Executive Director of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation; Prof Kwame Kwarteng of the Foundation and KNUST among others.
University of Maryland is ranked in the top 10 of public universities in the US and has a student population of 41,000 and an annual budget of $2.5 billion. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education through the Otumfuor Osei Tutu II Foundation, University of Maryland is launching a STEM learning program called Engineering For US All (e4usa).
Dr. Pines indicated that Ghana, like many countries, has capacity problems for STEM grads and that the program is to get kids interested in engineering. He added that they had been running the program in the US over the past 4 years and had trained over 90 teachers. He added that they are also interested in deep collaboration with KNUST in terms of faculty and student exchanges, and joint research.
Vice Chancellor Dickson noted that being the premier science and technology university in Ghana, KNUST is interested in the pipeline that supplies tertiary education with resources. She expressed her appreciation to the Otumfuor Osei Tutu II Foundation and butted the deep interest of the Chancellor in education. She assured the team that KNUST would give her fullest support for it to succeed. She stressed the importance of partnership to the activities of the university.
Present at the meeting was Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo, Pro Vice-Chancellor; Prof. Kwabena Britwum Nyarko, Provost College of Engineering; Prof. Larbi, representing the Provost College of Science, Prof. Daniel Duah, Dean International Programmes Office among others.