?The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) is pursuing accreditation of all its professional programmes at the Bachelor and Master degree levels, Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister, Christine Kangaloo Minister has said. Kangaloo explained that the accreditation of individual programmes required a different process and UTT chose to first seek accreditation of its engineering and technology programmes from internationally-recognised bodies, either in the US, through the accreditation board for Engineering and Technology, or the United Kingdom, through the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Energy Institute.
She pointed out that UTT's Bachelor of Technology degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering were accredited by the Institute of Engineering and Technology about four years ago. She added that UTT applied for the accreditation in petroleum engineering and petroleum technology of these programmes from the Energy Institute following the graduation of the first cohort. Kangaloo said that Energy Institute would accredit three programmes: Bachelor and master degrees in petroleum engineering and master degrees in petroleum technology. She said more than 6,900 students were enrolled in UTT at January 2010. She said 80 programmes were offered for the 2009/2010 academic year, UTT's staff stood at 448 and the institution had a student to teacher ratio of about 15 to one. (KM)