Private colleges in Ghana: The saga surrounding NAB continues

On February 10, 2014, a group of foreign students, mostly Nigerians, sought damages against the Mahatma Gandhi University and the Ghana National Accreditation Board (NAB) in excess of $1 million. To be candid, we are not surprised at the turn of such events. We anticipate future suits.

Fiat governing the NAB

The Government of Ghana established the NAB as an arm of the Ministry of Education in 1991, to ensure that the country’s tertiary education system became more responsive to the rapid pace of changes in education globally.  

All told, based on the data culled from the NAB’s website, 27 private colleges have been accredited so far. 

Refer to table :

1)Accra Institute of Technology

2)Advanced Business College

3)African University College of Communication

4)All Nations University College

5)Almond Institute

6)Anglican University College of Technology

7)Ashesi University College

8)Blue Crest College

9)Business Management and Financial Institute

10)Catholic Institute of Business and Technology

11)Catholic University College of Ghana

12)Central University College

13)Christ Apostolic University College

14)Christian Service University College

15)Community College

16)Data Link Institute

17)Dominion University College

18)Entrepreneurships Training Institute

19)Evangelical Presbyterian University College

20)Garden City University College

21)Ghana Baptist University College

22)Ghana Christian University College

23)Ghana Technology University College

24)Lancaster University 

25)Mahatma Gandhi University College

26)Marshalls College and the

27) Regent University College of Science and Technology

The NAB must be recognised for the rapid pace at which 27 colleges have within the past few years gone through their accreditation process. Inevitably, all these colleges are affiliated to public universities in one form or the other. 

The NAB conducts an initial institutional visit and imposes other fees that come to about GH¢60,000. In instances that require a re-accreditation visit, these colleges are charged an additional GH¢33,600.  

The NAB is managed by a board that comprises 15 members.  Within that structure are committees on finance, quality assurance, administration and institutional visits. 

Under the requirements for accreditation, #7 category says, “Institutional visit by the relevant NAB committee where facilities are in place at the institution, within 30 days after receipt of payment”. Under Institutional Accreditation (B), # 5 says, “Visit by NAB experts on physical facilities, library and finance within 30 days after the committee’s visit.

Some aberrations

In 2012, four colleges were cited for not meeting certain standards. Jayee University College had a situation where a few students were admitted without meeting the requisite minimum entry requirements. These students were asked to be withdrawn. Furthermore, the college was asked to cease advertising and refrain from admitting new students until the college acted in compliance with the NAB’s requirement. 

In addition, Wisconsin International University College was also cited for admitting students without the minimum qualifications. They were also asked to cease advertising and to put into place proper procedures to admit mature students. 

Pentecost University College was cited for admitting students who did not meet the minimum requirement, and the college was instructed to withdraw these students. 

Finally, Methodist University College had admitted 1,465 students who did not meet the minimum entry requirements. It was asked to cease advertising and affected students were asked to leave the campus. 

In all these cases, it was the students that were victims of a system that discarded its core mission and replaced it with making maximum profit. 

Unfortunately, in all the instances, instead of the NAB putting these schools on suspension or even closing them down and asking students to transfer to other colleges, a gentle meeting by the NAB was held on May 22, 2012. 

It was at this extraordinary meeting that the above observations and placid recommendations were made to the affected schools.  Without trying to be too critical on how these bizarre decisions were made, questions like:

How did this happen, who was responsible for admitting unqualified students? Did anyone get fired for this lapse; Were affected students given back the fees they had already paid? And how come these colleges were not put on suspension or their accreditation revoked?

Nowhere does it indicate that a serious fraud investigation took place to drill down to the root cause of these problems.  

Over the years, we have seen a rapid rise of new colleges. The building of colleges nowadays has been compared with starting churches within the Ghanaian context.  In fact, rumour has it that two of the fastest ways of making money in Ghana is to either start a church or a college. And truly, it appears to be the fact rather than a rumour. 

Sorry structures in colleges

Part of the approval process is for the NAB to ensure that colleges have facilities in place to accommodate students and departments. However, a visit to most of these colleges paints a total different picture. 

A typical secondary school such as Mawuli Senior High or Winneba Senior High School has more physical facilities than most of these colleges.  Our visits to some of them revealed palpably that some had only a single structure. Yet, these colleges have passed the NAB approval process. 

As part of the approval process, colleges have to indicate the qualification of staff to oversee the programmes that will be offered across campus. Yet, a search on some websites, that is if they are functional,  either do not list the names or qualification of faculty members available. Sometimes, only the list of senior management and, in certain instances, less than four faculty members. 

Often times, these faculty members are part-time instructors with master’s degrees and, in some rare cases, retired faculty from public universities. 

A cursory look at the courses being offered tends to be concentrated in Business Administration, Religious Education, Engineering, Health and Allied Sciences and Computer Sciences.  

Certainly, one cannot be sure what analyses or robust considerations go into making decisions with regards to course offering. Yet, these programmes have been approved by the NAB. 

The critical question to cogitate upon is what actually goes into the approval of these programmes and colleges by the NAB. 

Affiliations

There is no doubt that all these colleges are supposed to be affiliated with public universities. The question then becomes, how closely aligned are these affiliations? Do the public university admission officers participate or collaborate in admission considerations to these colleges?

How do the public universities ensure that students who are admitted to those colleges can be confident of, for example, walking away with esteemed certificates and diplomas equivalent to a student attending the University of Ghana or any of the other public universities. Inevitably, one might question the judgments made by the NAB. 

Over the years, the NAB has accredited several colleges that were not able to even pass the “smell test”. We are not discouraging students from attaining higher education. Be as it may, when we have situations such as colleges being accredited by the  NAB without due scrutiny, one then begins to question if the process is only a money-making one. 

It will be interesting to make public the sitting allowances of the 15 board members and the other committee members. 

Additionally, considering the fact that colleges pay a lot of money to go through the NAB process, we shudder to even think that this might be a money-generating practice. 

We do not see any robust scrutiny in place; otherwise,  why will the NAB endanger students by accrediting some colleges like Mahatma Gandhi University College and other similar colleges that physically, financially and academically can only be described as glorified high schools?. 

Conclusion

As educators and stakeholders in the business of preparing young minds for the future, it hurts to observe religious organisations, businessmen/ women

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 money-making one. 

It will be interesting to make public the sitting allowances of the 15 board members and the other committee members. 

Additionally, considering the fact that colleges pay a lot of money to go through the NAB process, we shudder to even think that this might be a money-generating practice. 

We do not see any robust scrutiny in place; otherwise,  why will the NAB endanger students by accrediting some colleges like Mahatma Gandhi University College and other similar colleges that physically, financially and academically can only be described as glorified high schools?

 

Conclusion

As educators and stakeholders in the business of preparing young minds for the future, it hurts to observe religious organisations, businessmen/ women and other groups exploiting the hunger of students with the promise of providing quality education to them in these so-called credible colleges. 

Mind you, these private colleges are not cheap. Some of them even quote their tuition fees in dollars.

In order to put some sanity and rigour into the accreditation system, the Ministry of Education needs to create an accreditation unit, different from the current one. 

Why do we need 15 board members to sit on the NAB board? On the contrary, we need qualified inspectors and accreditation experts. We need individuals who have participated in accreditation visits and inspections in other countries besides Ghana. We need to have inspectors who will report directly to the inspection bureau of the Ministry of Education. 

We need to include Ghanaian expatriates who live abroad and have participated in such inspections and visits and have them work in teams with local inspectors. 

Until we are able to remove money, religion and politics out of the accreditation process, we will continue to have episodic moments of students being asked to leave because they did not have the entry qualifications. 

Colleges have to be held responsible and accountable for their actions and the affiliate public universities must withdraw their affiliation with any college that does not meet the basic minimum standards. 

Finally, all colleges must not be allowed to implement graduate programmes until they become full-fledged universities with full-time faculty, with very few part-time or adjunct faculty members, expansive structural facilities in place, faculty with advanced degrees, robust libraries, research agenda, top-notch technology and closer collaboration with affiliate public universities and international reputable universities. 

Until we establish a rigorous yet robust accreditation system in Ghana, “glorified high schools at best” will continue to sprout like mushrooms.

Selete is with the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Bowie State University, Maryland, USA and Mikel is a Licensed Multi-Systemic Therapist /Social Policy Advocate, Maine, USA