The University of Energy and Natural Resource (UENR) is collaborating with Zoomlion and a Canadian company, Solar Gridare, to set up an assembly plant for the manufacturing and assembling of solar products in the school.
Professor Mrs. Esi Awuah, Vice Chancellor of UENR, disclosed this at the 4th Matriculation ceremony of the school, saying the project, upon completion, will provide opportunity for some engineering students to undertake their internship or attachment in the company.
She reiterated that globalization was about building partnerships and that, in this knowledge age, knowledge generation should not be confined to only the universities, but industry and other organizations. The UENR, therefore, would continue to establish linkages with institutions and other bodies.
UENR is also in the process of building ecodrones to monitor the nefarious activities in the forests and illegal mining activities around the water bodies in the country. According to Prof. Esi Awuah, the University this year received 1582 applications for admission into its programmes, out of the number, 1272 qualified for admission, representing 80%, of the total applications.
The University could, however, admit only 794 students, representing 62% of the total qualified applicants. Prof. Esi Awuah revealed that the University has since 2014 established the School of Graduate Studies and all the preparatory work for the admission of postgraduate students have been completed.She said UENR will soon mount its postgraduate programmes to increase total postgraduate enrolment into the university to about 20% of the total student population in the near future.
The Vice-Chancellor indicated that the University is poised to provide access to university education to as many qualified applicants as possible, but UENR is constrained due to inadequate academic and residential facilities for staff and students.
She said despite the constrains, UENR is, however, making giant strides in infrastructural development, disclosing that work has begun on the construction of the south wing of a 1600 hostel capacity on the Sunyani campus.
"The project when completed in the next 18months is expected to ease accommodation problems facing the students," She added.
Prof. Esi Awuah continued that another four storey 12 classroom lecture block has been awarded on contract and the contractor is mobilizing to site, the government has also awarded contract for the construction of the Dormaa Ahenkro campus to house the School of Agriculture and Technology.