The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has announced a temporary halt to the processing of new accreditation applications for academic programs in all public universities, including technical universities.
This suspension will take effect immediately and remain in place until January 1, 2024.
It’s important to note that this suspension does not apply to the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) located in Somanya, Eastern Region.
GTEC’s decision is motivated by the necessity to improve the accreditation process due to ongoing non-compliance by certain institutions with the country’s accreditation requirements.
A communication to all public universities, signed and issued by the Director of Accreditation of GTEC, John Dadzie Mensah, stated that “any public university that submits new programme accreditation application for consideration by the commission post-December 31, 2023, must demonstrate a clean sheet of programmes in good standing (having valid accreditation status) before the new one is admitted.”
Contrary to the directive, Mr. Mensah acknowledged that a majority of public universities were, in fact, performing well in terms of their accreditation processes, especially those offering a smaller number of programs.
Explaining the rationale behind this decision, Mr. Mensah cited public apprehension arising from recent releases of the Auditor-General’s Reports, which had raised concerns regarding the accreditation status of certain programs offered by public universities.
“This has made it necessary to take a pause to evaluate the situation to inform practice on the part of both the regulator and the institutions.”
“Although the break is for only three months, we appreciate how it may negatively impact the operations of the affected institutions,” he said, in an interview with Daily Graphic, describing it as a necessary evil.
He explained that “programmes are submitted at different times for accreditation, and so, the accreditation periods overlap.”
“Active and non-active accreditation status of programmes of an institution will, therefore, overlap always,” Mr Mensah further explained.
He explained that this situation implied that programs were continuously in need of re-accreditation as their accreditation periods expired. Simultaneously, while some programs were undergoing approval for accreditation or re-accreditation, new applications were being received for fresh accreditation or re-accreditation.
“That is why every institution is encouraged to initiate the re-accreditation process one full year before the active accreditation expires, mindful of the fact that the quality assurance processes leading to the granting of accreditation take time,” he said.
Mr. Mensah expressed his belief that strict adherence to the policy would effectively reduce the occurrence of overlaps.
“It, therefore, has very few programmes with none near expiry as far as accreditation status is concerned. The UESD, a new tertiary institution, is exempted because it is starting operation from scratch.”
“As a baby institution, it is being encouraged to introduce more programmes to be firm on the ground,” Mr Mensah said.