GTEC must probe reports of unaccredited courses in universities – Nortsu Kotoe

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu Kotoe wants the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to immediately conduct a probe into the unaccredited programmes at the University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

According to him, the move will put the minds of persons who have offered those programmes at rest.

This comes on the back of the Auditor General’s report indicating that some academic programmes being run by the University of Ghana and KNUST were not accredited in 2021.

Speaking to Citi News, the Member of Parliament for Akatsi North said engagements with management of the various universities must be done without delay.

“GTEC must as quickly as possible look at the content of the programs being run by these universities and see how best they can regularize them so that those who passed out already may not have any psychological effect.”

Over 600 academic programmes at the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were not accredited in 2021.

The Auditor-General’s report for 2021 noted that for the schools, “accreditation expired or requires re-accreditation during the period under review.”

The report revealed that 374 academic programmes at the University of Ghana are unaccredited.

The 299 programmes at KNUST were also not accredited.

At the University of Ghana, out of the 374 courses not accredited, 14 were Diploma programmes, 80 were Undergraduate courses, 213 were Post-Graduate courses, and 67 were PhD courses.

The Auditor-General’s report noted that the school management had responded to its recommendations.

At KNUST, out of the 360 programmes run by the University, only 61 were accredited, 190 were sent to National Accreditation Board (NAB) for accreditation and re-accreditation with 109 yet to be sent to NAB for accreditation.

The Auditor-General recommended that the Management of the University should “expedite action for accreditation and re-accreditation of all new and expired academic programmes respectively.”

KNUST was also asked to “liaise with Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to take retrospective accreditations to cover all the non-accredited certificates issued to students.”

The Auditor-General recommended that the school should stop running programmes that were not accredited to avoid sanctions by NAB.