Do not patronize unaccredited programmes by universities – GTEC cautions public

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has cautioned tertiary students against patronizing unaccredited programmes in some universities.

Prof. Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, the Deputy Director General of GTEC, said this will ensure quality in the educational system.

“Once we have the general public going by not patronizing programmes that are not accredited, I don’t think that we are going to have the problem that we have,” he said.

He also advised institutions that advertise unaccredited programmes to stop doing so and advertise accredited programmes.

Prof. Jinapor stressed that the management of the various institutions has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the challenges surrounding accreditation are solved

Meanwhile, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has also expressed concern about almost all public universities continuing to run unaccredited programmes.

This comes after the Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson admitted to the committee that over 300 programmes run by the university are yet to be accredited.

Responding to audit findings before PAC, she said over 140 out of the 500 programmes run by the institution have been fully accredited.

“Currently we have more than 500 programmes and as we speak, we have about over 140 accredited but some of them are at various stages of accreditation.

“For example, I am able to report that we’ve been working very closely with GTEC to ensure that these programmes are accredited,” Prof. Dickson said.