The Ghana
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South
in the Upper East Region, Dr Clement Apaak have rejected the Public
Universities Bill laid before Parliament describing it as unnecessary and
likely to set the institutions several decades back.
The Academy in a five-page document sent to
Parliament stated that the approach to higher education governance envisioned
in the Bill flies in the face of accumulated knowledge on the growth and
development of universities worldwide and current global trends toward
differentiation and diversification.
Dr Apaak also condemned the Bill saying the Bill
is not designed to fix any of the challenges public universities face, rather,
it was crafted to give the executive arm of government absolute control over
public universities.
The Academy
suggested that the nation needed differentiated and diversified, but not
necessarily the hierarchical, the university system, to offer flexibility
needed to address changing needs of students and nations in an increasingly
competitive and uncertain world.
The Bill, according to the Academy, was also not
in conformity with the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution and was
likely to be retrogressive, rather than enhancing what Ghanaian universities
had achieved over the years, approach to higher education governance envisioned
in the Bill flies in the face of accumulated knowledge on growth of
universities worldwide and current global trends toward differentiation and
diversification.
“Rather, Ghana needs differentiated and
diversified, but not necessarily hierarchical university system, to offer flexibility
needed to address changing needs of students and the nation in an increasingly
competitive and uncertain world,” the Academy noted.
Some proposals in the Bill grant the President power to dissolve University Council, allow Council to appoint Chancellor and allow unions to appoint only one representative on rotational system to serve on Council at each cycle.
But Dr Apaak
called on the government to drop the needless Public Universities Bill 2020
since it was not designed to fix any challenges public universities face and
insisted that it is been designed to give executive arm of government absolute
control over public universities which would spell doom for country.
“The bill is needless, unnecessary,
negatively affect management, functionality of our public universities, likely to set institutions several decades back, the
government’s overreaching powers to interfere in activities of universities
which
cannot be
good for university education and must be dropped,” he posited. -starrfmonline.com/rainbowradioonline.com
