By Ibrahim Nurudeen
Tamale, Feb 27, GNA – The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has launched the Accreditation Management Information System (AMIS), which is a platform, to enable universities to apply for accreditation of programmes without the need to physically visit the Commission’s offices.
AMIS platform is an online solution that will fast-track the accreditation process, provide timely feedback to applicants with real-time updates on the processes and the status of their applications and enhance transparency, accountability, and convenience for all stakeholders.
Eleven tertiary institutions located in the northern part of the country including University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale Technical University, Tamale Community Nursing Training College, Tamale Nurses and Midwives’ Training College, C. K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Bolgatanga Technical University, Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Dr Hilla Limann Technical University, Wa Nursing Training College would be the initial institutions to start accessing the platform.
Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, Director-General, GTEC, speaking during the launch in Tamale, said the AMIS platform would revolutionise the tertiary education space in the country.
He said, “With this, we hope to streamline the application process making it more efficient and accessible.”
He added that “It will help sanitise the tertiary education space, improve efficiency and address the issue of inconsistencies as well as eliminate the manual system, which is not only drudgery but fraught with human inadequacies thus causing discomfort to the universities and the public in general.”
Professor Jinapor said GTEC had plans to decentralise its operations by opening two new offices in Kumasi and Tamale to further enhance the accreditation process for tertiary institutions across the country.
He said this would bring accreditation services closer to institutions and applicants fostering a more responsive and accessible system.
He touched on the recent Auditor-General’s report on accreditation of programmes at universities in the country saying, “It will interest you to know that in 2022, the Public Accounts Committee report from almost all the public universities was a sad story where most of their programmes were either not accredited or had expired.”
He said, “This compelled the GTEC to take tough measures to right all those wrongs and among those tough decisions was the ban on the introduction of new programmes in all public universities from October, 2023 to January, 2024 so that all those public universities could take steps to rectify all such abnormalities within that period to enable them submit new programmes.”
Professor Jinapor said GTEC had established an Accelerated Accreditation Committee to address the delay in accrediting new programmes and expedite the verification and processing of documents.
He said the Commission accredited an average of 400 to 600 programmes every quarter, but the new Committee had successfully accredited 1,024 programmes in the last quarter of the year 2023.
He assured of the Commission’s determination to rid the tertiary education space of unregistered programmes and institutions.
Professor Seidu Al-hassan, Vice-Chancellor, UDS, who chaired the launch, said the initiative was long overdue and would make an impact in the educational sector.
He appealed to the Management of GTEC to monitor and ensure that the platform served its purpose.
GNA