The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) says students offering unaccredited programmes in various universities will be protected in the ongoing saga of unaccredited programmes.
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The assurance follows the release of the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report, which indicated that over 600 programmes run by the two leading universities were without accreditation.
According to the report, of the 360 programmes run by the KNUST, only 61 were accredited, while 374 of the programmes offered in the UG were unaccredited. This has triggered concerns about the validity of the certificates issued by the two universities to those who participate in such programmes.
However, the Director-General of the GTEC, Professor Mohammed Salifu, has allayed such fears, saying: “We want to reassure the students that their interests will be at the centre of the resolution of the problem and shall be protected.”
“We are fully aware that the students are the likely innocent and unfortunate victims and so the commission will make sure that their interests are protected,” Prof Salifu told Daily Graphic.
He reminded managers of all universities about the severe sanctions regime prescribed under the new Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023), which included steep fines or imprisonment or both for “advertising; causing to be advertised and/or running an institution or programme without a valid accreditation”.
“For now, our priority is working proactively with the universities to rectify the current situation, but the universities need to be on notice, as they were informed during engagements with GTEC, long before the release of the Auditor-General’s report, that some sanctions would have to follow after the resolution.
“It is important that measures taken as part of the process for resolving this situation are deterrent enough to avoid any future recurrence,” he said.
He hinted that at a meeting held last Friday, at the instance of the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, between council chairpersons and vice-chancellors of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), KNUST and UG, on the one hand, and the GTEC, on the other, both parties resolved to expedite action on the prior agreed plan for a speedy resolution.
Prof. Salifu advised potential students and parents to always visit the GTEC website to check on the accreditation status of all programmes before enrolling on them.
“They should also form the habit of looking out for the list of GTEC-accredited institutions published in the media from time to time to guide their choices,” he added.