The Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has affirmed its commitment to advance the cause of engineering education and training through sustained collaboration with industries.

Professor William Otoo Ellis, the Vice-Chancellor, pointed out that engineering could not be studied in a vacuum, and therefore advocated the need for industries to be receptive to joint ventures with the University, in order to making its academic programmes more practically-oriented and also relevant to address the needs of society.

Industries, he said, ought to open up their doors for internship and industrial attachments, technology transfer, research and other exchange programs, to bridge the academia-industry gap.

They should also donate training equipment to help resource the engineering departments to meet their mandate of churning out technocrats to spearhead the nation’s development agenda.

Prof. Ellis, who was signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with three companies at a ceremony in Kumasi, said the KNUST aspires to be a Centre of Excellence in research, science and technology education, and as such would explore all available avenues to achieve its targets.

The companies included Bopp and Reuther Messtechnik, Germany, a company specializing in measurement sciences, PHI Century Limited, Accra, a company incorporated in the Republic of Ghana to conduct helicopter transport operations in support of the oil and gas industry, and Process and Plant Automation, Accra, experts in the design and use of automation systems.

The agreement aims to deepen relationship between the University’s Mechanical Engineering Department and the three companies in the areas of research, exchange programmes, training and technology transfer.

Prof. Ellis welcomed the initiative, saying the KNUST would work assiduously to keep to the terms of the MoU to enhance engineering education. Dr Jean-Philippe Herzog, an official of Bopp and Reuther Messtechnik, hoped the collaboration would be sustained for the mutual benefits of the institutions.