By Christopher Tetteh
Sunyani (Bono), Aug. 08, GNA – The Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has declared a nationwide strike of its members, effective Monday August 10, 2026.
The Association announced the industrial action during its 2026 National Congress at Sunyani, worrying about unfairness and injustices in their salary structure and conditions of service.
The Congress was on the theme: “Building agile universities: The role of administrative and professional staff,” and attended by career administrators and other professionals from universities across the country.
Addressing the opening session of the congress, the Reverend Kwaku Amoah Karikari, the National President of GAUA, said the growing salary inequity threatened staff morale, industrial harmony, and effective administration of the public universities.
He said an improvement in the condition of service for senior staff members of public universities should not result in unfair and discriminatory treatment of non-teaching senior members.
Rev. Karikari recollected that following the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in 2012, the market premium for all senior members was harmonised at 114 per cent, to ensure equity across various categories of senior staff members.
However, no upwards adjustment had since been made until the recent review in 2026, he said.
He indicated that an agreement signed between GAUA and the government on April 22, 2026, took retrospective effect from April 1, 2026, to provide 40 per cent increase in the consolidated market premium and non-basic allowance for non-teaching Senior members of universities.
Nonetheless, “there is a substantial disparity that remains between the benefits received by teaching and non-teaching senior members.”
Rev. Karikari expressed concern that on average, a teaching senior member now received approximately GH¢10,000 market premium, while a non-teaching senior member received approximately GH¢ 4,718, representing a difference of about GH¢5,282 within an analogous pay structure.
He described the disparity as inconsistent with the principles of fairness, internal equity, and the objective of the SSSS.
Rev. Karikari said that GAUA was particularly troubled that the lowest ranked teaching senior member (Assistant lecturer), now received a higher market premium than the highest ranked non-teaching member (Registrar or Finance Officer).
He added that both categories were placed at the same market premium of 114 per cent when the SSSS was introduced in 2012.
Earlier in a welcoming address, Dr Mrs Georgina Asi Owusu, the Registrar of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) called on the government to ensure inclusion of the Universities in the “Resetting Ghana agenda.”
She noted that: “The GAUA isn’t asking to be placed above their colleagues, but, asking for fairness, recognition, and equity as necessities for building world-class universities in Ghana”.
Dr Owusu indicated that: “Let the resetting Ghana also be a reset of equity for fairness in the public universities through efforts to safeguard and promote quality in tertiary education.”
“A national reset can’t succeed if the university institutions remain unbalanced and therefore a reset must respect the fairness of all actors in the universities,” she added.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/ Christabel Addo
Reporter: Christopher Tetteh, GNA
Email: [email protected]