Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), has emphasized that media houses advertising unaccredited tertiary education institutions will face severe consequences under the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), including imprisonment for a minimum of 15 years.
During a media interaction on the issue of unaccredited tertiary programs, Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai announced that the commission will soon release the names of universities and media houses involved in advertising such programs.
The Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) empowers the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to take legal action against media houses that publish or promote unaccredited programs or institutions.
On the running of unaccredited programmes by the Tertiary institutions, Deputy Director-General Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai said to the Act states that tertiary institutions shall not operate or run a programme without accreditation by the board.
He explained that before an institution can run as a tertiary institution in the country, it must go through some accreditation processes and be granted approval to operate by the Board of the Commission.
The Deputy Director-General advised tertiary institutions to adhere to the provisions of the Act to avoid punishment.
The Auditor General’s report for 2021 revealed that over 600 academic programmes at the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were not accredited in 2021.
A total of 374 academic programmes at the University of Ghana were unaccredited and 299 programmes at KNUST were also not accredited. He said based on the report, the University of Ghana in 2022, increased its accreditation status to 129.8 per cent, KNUST improved to 118.5 per cent and the University of Cape Coast moved to 41.9 per cent.
Prof Abdulai said the Commission would work assiduously to ensure zero tolerance for non-accredited programmes in tertiary institutions.
He expressed concerns about institutions using the premises of Senior High Schools and Junior High Schools for distance education, which is against the infrastructure requirements of tertiary institutions.
Prof Abdulai advised parents to do due diligence in choosing tertiary institutions for their wards, stating that the aim of the Commission is to ensure quality assurance and value for money for its stakeholders.
