The University Teachers Association of Ghana, UTAG, has called on the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, (GTEC) Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai to stop what it describes as interference in the governance of public universities.
UTAG says GTEC must respect the autonomy of universities and their Governing Councils. The call was made at the UTAG Experts’ Forum 2026, held at the University of Cape Coast.
The forum was held on the theme:“Rethinking Autonomy, Power and Oversight: GTEC’s Regulatory Authority and the Politics of Academic Freedom in Ghanaian Universities.”
It brought together academics from public universities, including the University of Ghana, Legon, and the University of Education, Winneba.
President of UTAG-UCC, Professor Jerry Opoku Ansah, argued that while every public university is established by an Act of Parliament and governed by its own statutes, GTEC is also established by law to regulate tertiary education.
According to the Association, the two legal frameworks are increasingly coming into conflict when GTEC goes beyond its mandate.
Meanwhile, “every university is established by an Act of Parliament and governed by statutes drafted from that Act. Government also has the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, which is established by an Act of Parliament. So we have two Acts that can conflict. GTEC’s role is to regulate university activities, but universities also have governance structures. What we have realized is that there is often an overreach, especially concerning the rules, statutes and governance structures of universities.”
Professor Ansah said GTEC is stepping on the rights of universities within their own governing councils.
He explained that the forum seeks to promote a broader national conversation and push for amendments to the GTEC Act, to allow universities to operate freely without undue interference in their councils.
UTAG maintains that GTEC’s role should be limited to regulation, quality assurance, coordination and accreditation, and not direct involvement in the internal management of universities.
A Senior Member of the University of Cape Coast faculty of Law Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson,in his presentation at the fourm, indicated that GTEC must focus on its mandate under the law, including regulation, and avoid venturing into areas outside its responsibilities.
According to him, nowhere in the GTEC law is GTEC required to have membership on a university council, either in the letter or the spirit of the law.
He explained that although the establishing legislation of some universities may provide for GTEC to be a member of, or attend, a university council, the GTEC law itself was passed without such a requirement.
“The GTEC law was passed, and nowhere in the GTEC law does it require membership on a university council, either in the letter of the law or in conformity with the spirit of the law, to be sitting on council.
Therefore, the council is the governing council; it makes decisions about the university. If GTEC participates in the process wearing one hat, and then, wearing another hat, goes to negate or undermine those decisions, GTEC is bound by those decisions.
The Association of University Teachers is saying that a referee or regulator cannot employ your staff or determine policy. A referee cannot choose the coach, the players and the captain, and then come and referee the game. The letter of the law does not allow it, and the spirit of the law does not allow it.”
Bondzi-Simpson urged GTEC to be guided by the new legislation and its spirit, and to concentrate on its core regulatory mandate in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Executive Secretary of Vice-Chancellors Ghana, (VCG) , Dr. Cynthia Sean Kpeglo-Freiku, has also raised concerns about interference by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, GTEC, in the appointment of principals of Colleges of Education.
According to her, recruitment, appointments and promotions are vested in university councils. However, with the introduction of an additional regulatory layer, GTEC now requires approval for some of these decisions, particularly for Colleges of Education, a situation she described as interference.
Dr. Kpeglo-Freiku explained that, legally, GTEC is not supposed to determine who universities recruit. She said the current practice, where universities complete appointment and promotion processes only for GTEC to disapprove them, amounts to a duplication of effort and a waste of financial resources.
“Recruitment, appointments and promotions were vested in the university councils. With this other regulatory layer, some of these approvals have now been passed on to GTEC. I was making particular reference to the Colleges of Education, and this is what comes across as interference. If you look at the mandate outlined by the earlier speaker, legally, GTEC is not supposed to be determining recruitment and related matters.
That may have been intended for standardisation, but it has become a challenge, and we believe we can do better. We just need to sit around the table, engage, and find solutions.
When an appointments and promotions committee recruits someone, a great deal of effort and resources go into the process. Then, when it goes to GTEC and GTEC says it is not very certain about it, we may have to go back to the drawing board and perform the same activity twice. That is the challenge. It means we are exerting twice the effort to complete one assignment that is already vested in the university council’s mandate.”
Dr. Kpeglo-Freiku called for sustained dialogue between universities and GTEC to find lasting solutions to the challenges, rather than requiring universities to exert twice the effort for one assignment already within their mandate.
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