In keeping with the Government’s push for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) development in Guyana, the University of Guyana (UG) will see the expansion of programmes within the Faculty of Technology.
In addition to the new Aviation programme, other courses are slated to soon be added to the Faculty’s purview.
Speaking at the signing of a collaborative academic agreement with Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI) yesterday, at the Vice-Chancellery, Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for academic engagement, Professor Michael E. Scott told the Department of Public Information (DPI), “There will be at least one additional department for sure, that is the Department of Mining, which will be included in the general department’s structure, at the same time they’ve already instituted new programmes in aviation and other things as well.”
Professor Scott further added that UG has noticed the changes in the economy and aims to be proactive in responding to those changes.
“The important thing is that any university, any institution of learning is dynamic…and knowledge changes. Knowledge is not limited domestically it’s a global product and therefore for our students when they leave here and go anywhere they ought to be able to have some understanding of what the knowledge environment is.”
As the oil and gas sector is scheduled to be fully operational within two years (2020), the University will continue to promote and offer its programmes in chemical engineering. “It’s not a question of now, it’s a question of why it did not happen before and so as we recognise those things and we are doing them,” Scott said.
The University of Guyana has offered programmes in Chemical Engineering for years and has trained many engineers, who because of the unavailability of jobs in local industries at the time, have migrated to other countries.
“We weren’t ready at that time and so those went away and the reality is that now is the time and therefore we have to make as much of an impact upon our society,” Professor Scott emphasised.
