The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) within the last quarter of 2023 accredited 1,024 programmes for tertiary institutions in the country.
Within the past three years, however, the Commission accredited an average of 500 programmes annually.
According to Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Acting Director-General of GTEC, the significant increase in number of programmes accredited was due to the establishment of a specialised team, Accelerated Accreditation Committee, to work with the regular Accreditation Committee to work on the accreditation processes.
This came to light in Accra, yesterday, when the management of GTEC appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to respond to infractions captured in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report.
The Chairman of PAC, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, had sought information on why accreditation of programmes run by tertiary institutions were mostly delayed although students were being examined and certified on.
“We are concerned about delays in accreditation of programmes. It takes such a long time for university programmes to be accredited yet the schools examine and certify students on those programmes.
You charge for accreditation yet you delay the process. Is it a means of raking in more revenue?” he quizzed.
Responding, Prof. Abdulai, said the challenges with accreditation in the past was as a result of non-adherence to guidelines and regulations governing accreditation.
“For a long time in this country, accreditation culture has been non-adherence. People thought that whether you are accredited or not, nothing happens.
This non-adherence changed for the better when the PAC took the lead in querying tertiary institutions on accreditation and their programmes,” he stated.
To deal with the challenge, he said GTEC developed policies to clear accreditation application backlogs by setting up the Accelerated Accreditation Committee to work directly with the regular Accreditation Committee to expedite the processes.
He noted that, the new policy, required that accredited programmes were issued a certificate, to complete the application approval process.
Additionally, Prof. Abdulai said, the Commission had developed an online platform, dubbed, Accreditation Management Information System for easy admission and consideration of accreditation applications.
The new processes, he stated included a review programmes submitted to be accredited by the newly established policy approval committee to ascertain whether the applicant had the requisite capacity to run the programme before it was admitted for quality assurance.
Also, he noted that, the GTEC was considering a decentralisation of its operations by establishing two offices in Kumasi and Tamale to provide services to tertiary institutions in the middle and northern belts.
He said that the Commission was intensifying enforcement to ensure institutions that run unaccredited programmes were sanctioned as required by law.
“Mr Chairman, it is in our interest to get programmes accredited. We have instances where people have had their scholarships withdrawn because their programmes were not accredited.
We are also responsible for the validation of certificate for employment. We’re working to ensure that all these measures enhance the accreditation process and the leadership of universities have been cooperative,” Prof. Abdulai added.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
