Sunyani, Oct. 18, GNA - Prof William Otoo Ellis, the Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, has told fresh students of the Faculty of Forest Resources Technology to make acquiring a degree from the university their pre-occupation.

He said that did not imply they should not engage in any extra-curricular activity but the desire and effort to earn their degrees must take precedence over all other things.

Prof Ellis was addressing the matriculation ceremony of the faculty in Sunyani on Saturday where 97 fresh students were admitted to pursue Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Forest Resources Technology.

It is a four-year degree programme at the Sunyani campus of the University and the 97 students, selected from 20,000 applications, were made up of 71 men 26 women.

Besides the 97 students, the university's Institute of Distance Learning also admitted 150 students for its Sunyani Centre who were also matriculated.

Prof Ellis said the number of female students had increased this year and this had brought the University's total number of students at the Sunyani campus to 400.

Prof Ellis expressed the hope that the students would acquire the skills and knowledge that would enable them to help solve problems facing the agriculture.

He said the campus was facing some problems and announced that the University authorities were in discussion with their Estate Department to renovate an old building for use as a library for the campus to stem the problem of congestion at the old one.

The university's Academic Board was also giving serious consideration to the restructuring of the three-year Diploma programme to attract more students to the faculty.

Prof Ellis promised to ensure that the faculty's acute transportation problem would be tackled so as to facilitate their field trips which are basic requirements of the course.

Prof Robert Clement Abaidoo, Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources administered the matriculation oath.

Some 317 fresh students were also admitted at the Techiman campus of Valley View University (VVU) on Saturday and they were made up of 207 men and 110 women.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Dr Dr Daniel Buor, said the education system of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was based on the philosophy of developing all the faculties of a person - physical, mental, social, spiritual and moral.

He appealed to the students to always excel in academic performance so that "when you meet a student from Harvard University you must meet him boot for boot in demonstrating scholarship".

Pastor Daniel Oduro Sarpong, the President of Mid-West Ghana Conference of the SDA Church, thanked the chiefs and people of Techiman Traditional Area for offering land that had enabled the Church to provide quality tertiary education to the youth in Techiman.

"It is our earnest prayer that Valley View University programmes at Techiman will contribute significantly to the human resource development of the country."

Techiman campus of VVU runs Bachelor of Business Administration with specialization in accounting, banking and finance, Human Resource Management and Marketing, Bachelor of Science in Information Technology, Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness and Bachelor of Education in Secondary Education with specialization in Mathematics, English, Accounting and Social Studies.