By Godfred A. Polkuu
Navrongo (U/E) June 27, GNA – Professor Mohammed Salifu, the Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), has cautioned the media against advertising programmes and institutions of higher education that have no accreditation.
He said it was incumbent on the media to verify accreditation certificates of institutions and programmes before it advertised same, as failure to do so, would attract a jail term, hefty fine or both, per the GTEC Act of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020, Act 1023.
Professor Salifu, who gave the caution at the Second Congregation of the Clement Kubindiwo Tedem – University of Technology and Applied Sciences (CKT-UTAS) in Navrongo, Upper East Region, said “This must serve as a timely reminder at this time when Universities are advertising for students, for everyone to be aware of their obligation under the law.
“Our news media too must take note that under the law, it is an offence to advertise a programme or an institution of higher education for the purpose of soliciting for students without first verifying the certificates of accreditation.
“The advertising media house would be as guilty as the institution that is causing the advertisement to be done. The offence is considered so serious under the law that it attracts a jail term and hefty fines or both.
“So please beware, and let us be up and doing in relation to our obligations under the accreditation requirements,” the DG of the GTEC, who was the Special Guest of Honour for the ceremony, cautioned.
Professor Salifu expressed concern that some higher education institutions in the country were guilty of the law, as they ran unaccredited programmes and their “so-called study centres across the length and breadth of the country without the necessary accreditation.”
He insisted that all responsible higher education institutions must obtain appropriate accreditation before they mounted course offerings and said the GTEC would deal with such infractions much more robustly and in strict adherence to the GTEC Act.
The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the CKT-UTAS, Professor Eric Magnus Wilmot, said the mandate of the University was to provide higher education, undertake research, and disseminate knowledge related to development in the integrated technology and applied sciences.
He said to achieve the mandate of the University, management had adopted assessment criteria which placed premium on continuous assessment rather than the single shot end-of-semester examinations.
“Our students are also to undertake hands-on industrial experience during their training through attachments in industries and other institutions whose activities are related to their programmes of study in levels 200 and 300 of their study in the University.
“We believe the mode of training our students with emphasis on continuous assessment is the best way to train Scientists of our time for the development of our country and beyond,” the VC said.
Professor Wilmot said the University had a Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance Office to ensure that its programmes were not watered down.
“As a consequent, apart from reaccreditation of six programmes of some of the programmes we inherited from UDS, the University has submitted 24 new programmes to GTEC and these programmes are at various stages of the accreditation process.”
Professor Wilmot indicated that more programmes would be submitted for accreditation as soon as they passed the first scrutiny and evaluation at the Academic Programmes Committee level and the Academic Board.
“It is our plan, when given more financial clearance, to add a School of Engineering in the hope of introducing programmes in aeronautic engineering as well as electric and auto engineering among others,” the VC said.
GNA