By Sorie Ibrahim Fofanah
The Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Dr. Ramatulai Wurie has said Kono University of Science and Technology (KUST) has begun admitting the first batch of students for the coming academic year
Dr. Wurie made this disclosure at the government’s weekly press briefing at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Freetown on 19th December 2023.
She said 80 students have already applied for ten out of twelve courses approved by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). She said they had initially started paper applications but that they had created an online application platform for the university.
She said they have been working behind the scenes, noting that they have set up a transition team.
”We would like to thank the Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology because they helped us in that regard by providing us with a technical team who are serving in the transition team,” she added. After the setting up of a transition team, Wurie said they would want to identify a place where the university secretariat can operate and where lectures will take place. “At this moment the construction is still ongoing,” she emphasized, noting that they had to choose a hotel to be the university secretariat, adding that they have also identified two government technical institutions where lectures are to take place.
Wurie said they are working to ensure lectures start next academic year while waiting for the “preface construction” at the site which was given to them by the community owners. ”The Government of Sierra Leone gave two million dollars and that is what we are using to start up the construction of the initial buildings, while the other loan which was given by an Indian organization will be used to construct the entire campus,” she said.
On the courses that will be offered, she said they should be linked to the core purpose of the university which is science and technology. She, however, said they have included courses that will be of national development goal, taking into consideration the agenda of the Big Five Game Changers. The minister said TEC approved ten out of the twelve programmes that they proposed, noting that the university is not well equipped to offer the other two programmes.
“BSC Mining and Engineering, BSC Computer Science, BSC Information Technology, Diploma in Information Technology, BSC Information System, BSC Livestock Management, BSC Horticulture, BSC Crop Production, BSC Land Resource Management and Diploma in Land Resource Management. These are the courses that the TEC approved for us to start with next academic year, starting January,” she said.
She went on to say they have identified lecturers in Kono, Ernest Bai Koroma University, and other institutions close to Kono District.
She noted that there should be no vacuum and that the construction of the university is going on and will last thirty-six months.
The Kono University of Science and Technology was among three universities that were approved by parliament on the 8th of July 2021. However, the other two: Milton Margai Technical University and the Eastern Technical University were already in existence with their initial college statuses before they were elevated to university status.
President Julius Maada Bio launched the construction of the Kono University of Science and Technology (KUST) on Friday 19th November 2021. The said project was launched in Gbense Chiefdom in Kono District.
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