A three-day workshop to deliberate on the draft Tertiary Education Policy Document has opened
in Koforidua today. The draft policy document seeks to serve as a reference material that would
be a distillate of key Government policies on tertiary education in the country.
Opening the workshop, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi
Yankah stated the whole project forms part of the Ministry of Education’s strong desire to
transform the face of education in line with the national vision of the Government of the
Republic of Ghana.
He stated that the Ministry of Education was fully committed to improving quality higher
education in Ghana, hence the policy document that would ensure institutional compliance with
policy and minimize irregularities and deviations from normative practices.
Prof. Yankah indicated that the document provided an opportunity to realign occasional
inconsistencies between provisions in the national constitution and provisions in university
acts/statutes, adding that new and emerging realities were expected to be contained as seen in
documentation on technical universities, colleges of education, private universities and
associated policies.
He expressed appreciation to the committee that produced the draft policy document and thanked
participants for honoring the invitation of the Ministry.
Giving an overview of the Document, Prof. Jonathan N. Ayertey stated that themes covered in
the draft document included policies on institutional governance, equity and access, quality and
relevance, admissions, entry requirements, credit conversion, the issue of relevance and
academic program development, partnership with industry; internationalization, staff student
ratio, financing tertiary education, gender, among others.
The Ministry, in 2018, constituted a nine-member committee chaired by Professor Cliff Tagoe,
to deliberate and in consultation with stakeholders, produce a draft policy document by bringing
together all relevant existing documentations, distill relevant government policies, regulatory
policies and legislative instruments and, taking into consideration, emerging realities on the
tertiary landscape, propose appropriate policy guidelines that are consistent with national vision.
The committee was also to “in the face of emerging global realities, propose additional policies
and guidelines considered essential in the promotion of national interest and smooth running of
tertiary institutions in Ghana.
The Committee after several months of deliberations, submitted its draft report to the Ministry in
November, 2018.
It is upon this that the Ministry of Education, has organized a retreat for stakeholders within the
tertiary space to discuss and fill the vacuum with an attempt to providing a broad guideline for
policy formulation with regards to tertiary education.
Participants included Vice Chancellors of all state-owned universities; Officials of the Ministry
of Education; Representatives of regulatory bodies including the National Council for Tertiary
Education (NCTE), the National Accreditation Board (NAB), the National Board for
Professional and Technician Examinations (NABTEX); the Conference of Rectors and Vice
Chancellors of Technical Universities; University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG);
Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU); the Education Reform Secretariat of the
Ministry of Education; and some celebrated Educationists in Ghana.