Kumasi, Aug. 2, GNA - The Kumasi Polytechnic would from next academic year start degree programmes in Petrochemical Engineering and four other areas of study, Professor Nicholas Nicodemus Nana Nsowaah-Nuamah, the Rector, said.

These include Nursing, Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medical Laboratory Science

and Industrial Laboratory.

He said this would be done in collaboration with some United States an= d Chinese

universities. The goal is to build the competencies and capacity of Ghanaian student= s for those

sectors. Prof Nsowaah-Nuamah was speaking to newsmen after taking delivery of assorted

books for the polytechnic in Kumasi on Tuesday. The books were donated through Dr Patricia Owusu-Darko, Director of International

Relations of the Polytechnic, by the Glasgow Caledonian University in the United Kingdom

(UK). The subjects they cover range from clinical nursing practices, principles of anatomy and

physiology, physiology for health-care students, food science, genetic medicine sciences,

biochemistry, computer science, strategic management, biology and chemistry to

construction. Prof Nsowaah-Nuamah said the donation could not have come at a better time

given the relevance of the books to the new programmes they were introducing. Dr Owusu-Darko praised Prof Kofi Aidoo, a Lecturer at the UK University, who was

instrumental in getting the books for the polytechnic. She said she had no doubt that they would significantly contribute to the academic work

of the institution.