Vice chancellor of University of Mines and Technology UMaT
The Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive Officer of the University and responsible for overall planning, direction, organisation, management and discipline of the University. As chief academic, administrator and strategist, the Vice Chancellor provides leadership to all the members of the University.
The Vice Chancellor is an ex-officio member of every Faculty, School and Committees of the University and may preside at any meeting of such Faculty, School, Committee or body. He exercises responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the University and its constituent parts in relation to its academic, financial and organisational goals and policies. Two other offices that report directly to the Vice Chancellor are the Planning and Quality Assurance Unit and the Office of International Programmes.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. J. S. Y. Kuma has over 30 years of teaching, research and administrative experience and has distinguished himself as an excellent academician with over 44 refereed journal and conference publications and scores of technical reports to his credit. He is a product of the University of Ghana, Legon, the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Delft, Netherlands and the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Prof Kuma took up his first teaching appointment in 1987 at the Department of Geology and Survey as an Assistant Lecturer in the then KNUST School of Mines, Tarkwa and by dint of hard work, rose through the academic ranks to occupy various positions as Head of Department, Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor. He has also served and is still serving on several boards and committees of the University.
In 2002, he received his PhD in civil engineering (water resources division) from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and as part of a team of researchers, won the Queen’s Anniversary prize for higher and further education in 2005 based on pioneering research in ecologically integrated remediation techniques for water pollution from abandoned mines. He is currently the Ghana Chamber of Mines sponsored Professorial Chair of Environmental Studies at UMaT. He received the Nobles International Award for being an eminent West African who upholds the virtues of honesty, integrity and accountability in November 2013. In June 2014, the World Congress of Chancellors and Vice Chancellors meeting in Mumbai, India, gave Prof Kuma an award for his “outstanding contribution to education”. In December 2015, he received the Africa Education Leadership Award in Mauritius. The awards are presented to “………individuals behind an institution who are building their institutions through leadership, innovation, academic and industry interface with a supreme objective of building future leaders.”
He is a member of the Ghana Institution of Geoscientists (GhIG), Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE), International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) and the Global Scientific Committee of the Planet Earth Institute (PEl). Prof Kuma is a Fellow of the African Scientific Institute (ASI) and an executive member of the World Forum of Universities of Resources on Sustainability (WFURS).