The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has warned that all private universities that are not chartered or initiated processes to receive charter would be closed by August 31 this year.

Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Acting Director-General of GTEC, said the decision was in line with the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), aimed at ensuring standards and quality in Ghana’s tertiary education.

“I call on all stakeholders within the private tertiary educational delivery sector required to charter to take this exercise seriously since non-adherent institutions will be forced to close by expiration of the window of application as captured in the law,” he stated.

Prof. Abdulai was speaking at the opening session of the ninth Association of West African Universities (AWAU) Conference 2024 and 11th Annual General Meeting ongoing at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The three-day conference is on the theme: “Promoting quality tertiary education in West Africa through collaboration, regional integration and technology.”

It has assembled top stakeholders in the tertiary education space including chancellors, vice-chancellors, registrars, and regulators from across Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and other West African countries to dialogue on the best approaches to standardise and enhance quality education.

Prof. Abdulai noted that there were 310 tertiary education institutions captured in the Commission’s database of which 128 were private.

At the moment, he indicated the Commission had received 77 applications seeking to charter, with 43 institutions ready, and 21 others to be ready to charter in two years.

However, he said some of the institutions were in distress conditions and being recommended to shut down.

The Acting GTEC Director-General averred that quality in tertiary education delivery was a necessity which could best and easily be achieved by institutional collaborations, integration, and adoption of technology.

He commended the management of the various tertiary institutions in Ghana for their adherence to accreditation which was a basic quality assurance in every institution.

“We believe that foundational threshold for quality within tertiary education is whether an institution or programme qualifies for a certain status represented as accreditation,” he said.

“We believe collaboration, regional integration and technology can be properly situated within the spectrum of quality tertiary educational delivery when the minimum operational standard for delivery is in place,” he added.

Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the Vice Chancellor of UCC and Chairman of AWAU, challenged universities in the Sub-region to embrace technology in their quest to improve the quality of higher education in response to demands of the 21st Century world.

“The 21st Century is a technology-driven age, and the recent covid-19 global pandemic has thought us an important lesson about how technology continues to shape educational outcomes both in conventional classroom settings and in the world of work,” he said.

knowing the relevant technologies to use has the potential to increase the quality of tertiary education, he emphasised, adding that this helped lecturers, researchers, and institutional leaders to make informed choices to bring about the required change in teaching, research, and community services.

Prof Boampong underscored the need for universities to strive to continuously improve the academic environment as well as their contents to remain relevant in the ever-changing and competitive global space.

He said continuous professional learning was key to improving quality at all levels and urged institutions in West Africa to be intentional about their curriculum.

 Source: GNA