Speaking on the side-lines of the 17th graduation ceremony of the Regional Maritime University the outgone SRC president of the university, Alex Abayateye made one more appeal.

He called on government and industry to forge stronger collaborations with academia for specific sponsorship programs for students.

“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 Masters in Naval Architecture and had to go through the treadmill. I will encourage government to liaise with the industry such as the Ghana Maritime Authority, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, MPS Tema Terminal 3 and the likes to sponsor specific disciplines to go and study and then improve upon the Maritime Industry. One of the areas I’m particular about is the 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 of 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.”