Consideration of Public Universities Bill suspended
Parliament has suspended the controversial Public University Bill at the consideration stage.
The latest move is to allow for further stakeholder engagements.
Addressing the Press, the chairperson of the Education Committee in Parliament, William Quaittoo Agyapong, said: “The consideration at the plenary is suspended. That is on hold until we receive their [UTAG’s] inputs on the new Bill.”
He said copies of the revised bill have been made available to all agitating stakeholders awaiting their inputs.
Parliament on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, approved the Public University Bill at the second reading stage.
This sparked concerns from stakeholders in the educational sector leading to a meeting between the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
But the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education said the Bill would not have been passed without the input of various stakeholders.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Quaittoo assured that “the House [Parliament] is not in a rush to get this Bill passed.”
Agitations
There had been agitations from a section of the public, especially from the academic community over the bill. They say the bill constitutes an attack on academic freedom.
The bill purports to vest in the President the power to dissolve a university council and to appoint an interim council.
Where the Chair of the Council is absent at a meeting, only a presidential nominee to the Council may Chair the meeting; no other member of Council may chair the meeting
According to the bill, a public university may only establish a campus with the approval of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission must approve any secondment of staff from the university to other parts of the public services.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission must approve international partnerships that a public university wishes to enter into.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission must approve domestic partnerships of any kind that a public university wishes to enter into and must be consulted before the establishment of Schools, Faculties, Departments, Divisions, Centres and Institutes.
The Director of the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr. Lloyd Amoah on Wednesday called on the government to withdraw the Bill.
He argued that the bill was inimical to the growth of public universities in the country.
According to him, the bill seeks to micromanage public universities and stem academic freedom in the country.
“What this bill seeks to do is to bring in the executive to micromanage how we run our universities. Opinions and thinking can not necessarily always be in sync. What has happened with the UTAG of UG and our parent body has been a kind of dichotomy in the way the bill has been viewed.
“We have made it clear that this bill is inimical to the running of public universities in this country and must be withdrawn. The bill affects all of us in this country especially the coming generation. Those of us leading this fight are not doing it for ourselves and we can’t do it for ourselves,” he said.
A law professor, Raymond Atuguba in an article widely shared on social media, described the bill as nefarious and an attempt to politicise university administration.