Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) organized a policy dialogue on the 19th of December 2023 at the Kwame Nkrumah Auditorium on the theme ‘Managing Ghana’s Public Universities in a New Age’ as part of their project on ‘Motivating Higher Reforms in Ghana- Towards Equity and Sustainability’.
The project seeks to accumulate evidence, disseminate information, and provide a platform to foster consensus building and also contribute to policy formulation in higher education in Ghana. Additionally, the project aims to scrutinize the demand for a re-examination of traditional management approaches in public universities.
The dialogue featured a presentation of the background paper by Prof. Joseph Roland Atsu Aryee. The background paper focused on the renewed interest and concerns of managing Universities.
Pro. Aryee discussed the counterproductive factors that hinder the functions of the Universities where he further highlighted the legal framework involved in initiating and managing the University structure.
“I would also like to say that some of the policies and directives of government and government institutions have become counter-products and they have undermined the autonomy of the independence of the university… there are [tertiary] institutions [and] universities run on board and for me, the legal, the policy, and institutional homework are there to enable such universities to actually initiate reforms and manage. The universities are sufficient to grow, these institutions can deal with issues related to reforms.”
Prof. Aryee then alluded to some significant recommendations, emphasizing that despite challenges in the university management system in Ghana, reassessing the legal and policy framework, promoting private partnerships in line with new reforms, and promoting publicness will ensure an evolved mandate and capacity for effective administration.
“Then, of course, [there is] the whole issue of partnering with the private sector to undertake certain projects. The University of Ghana, for instance, has an arrangement with Toyota Ghana to train engineers. The universities have faced the problem of crisis, crisis from management and students and they have been able to deal with it over the years. The universities are unique and therefore if you want to move forward, you need to maintain uniqueness.”
Prof. Atsu Aryee suggested that ideally, the country should promote the publicness of the universities.
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Story by: Mabel Antwi | univers.ug.edu.gh
