Every program that a university offered was initially accredited for a term of three years, and then for re-accreditation, for a period of five years.
As a result, every five years, all programs had to undergo reaccreditation.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has allayed the fears of students reading unaccredited programmes, that they will not be affected by its implications.
Students at the University of Ghana (UG) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have been assured by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) that their interests will be protected in the ongoing case of unaccredited programs.Such worries have been allayed by GTEC Director-General Professor Mohammed Salifu, who stated: “We want to reassure the students that their interests will be at the center of the settlement of the situation and shall be protected.”
Prof. Salifu told Graphic Online’s Severious Kale-Dery, “We are well aware that the students are the likely innocent and unfortunate victims, and the commission will make sure that their interests are protected.”
The problems, according to Prof. Salifu, were “legacy issues” that existed before GTEC was founded. He also said that the commission had been collaborating with the universities for a prompt resolution even before the publication of the Auditor-General’s Report.
As a result, several of the programs identified in the study as lacking active accreditation have either since received complete reaccreditation or are currently undergoing serious review by GTEC.
Sanctions
“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 emphasized to university administrators the harsh penalties set forth in the new Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020 (Act 1023), which include heavy fines, prison time, or both, for “promoting; causing to be marketed and/or conducting an institution or program without a legitimate accreditation.”
