GTEC gives all universities deadline to close unapproved campuses

All public universities operating unapproved campuses other than their main campuses are to be closed down by September 30, 2023, the management of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has announced.

“We have written to them to cease the running of such centres by September 30, 2023. Some of them have written to us asking for dialogue and conversation, which we do not have any problem with

At the end of the day, what we are looking for is that we want things to be done and done properly,” the Deputy Director-General of GTEC, Professor Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, told the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview in Accra.

He added “We have some that have approval but all those in senior high schools and colleges of education run by universities as distance, as well as nursing institutions by universities and in some instances places of work are illegal.

“We are not against distance education, but it must be fit for purpose like the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology one at Tamale and not those using basic and senior high schools or churches as centres,” he said.

The Deputy Director-General of GTEC said his outfit was working with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to issue a fiat to all heads of Senior High and basic schools to desist from giving out their schools as centres to such universities.

Touching on courses offered on satellite campuses, he also stated that it was unacceptable for a public university in one region to establish a campus in another region where there is a public university to run the same programmes.

Commenting on cases of unaccredited programmes offered by some universities, the GTEC Director-General gave an assurance that the commission was working hard to deal with the numerous challenges bedevilling that space.

Professor Jinapor appealed to parents to take a keen interest in the institutions and programmes their children select giving the assurance that whatever the GTEC was doing was in the interest of parents and their wards.