Inauguration of more university councils next week - Prof. Yankah
The formal inauguration of the governing councils for most public universities will take place next week.
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This follows the approval of the full list of the membership of the various respective councils by the Council of State.
The Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwasi Yankah, announced this when he inaugurated the reconstituted Council of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Accra yesterday.
UTAG concerns
Earlier this week, the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) gave the government a two-week ultimatum to reconstitute the councils of public universities.
It explained that the absence of the councils was disrupting the operations of the various universities.
Governing Councils of public universities
Prof. Yankah gave the list of those institutions whose governing councils were approved by the Council of State as the University of Ghana, Legon, with Professor Yaw Twumasi as its chairman; the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with Professor Emeritus Kwame Sarpong as its chairman.
The others, according to him, were the University of Cape Coast (UCC) with Mrs Nancy Thompson as chairperson, the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has Prof. Emmanuel N. Abakah as chairman, while Dr Stepehen Saforo Yirenkyi and Mr Nutifafa Kuenyehia have been appointed as chairmen for the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) and the University for Development Studies respectively.
Prof. Yankah explained that the remaining public universities would also have their councils in place very soon and there was, therefore, no cause for alarm.
Chairmen for regulatory bodies
He further announced that the Council of State had also approved Prof. Kwame Boafo Arthur as Chairman for the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), Prof. Kwame Osei Kwarteng, Chairman for the National Council for Curriculum Assessment; and Dr Mrs Henrietta Abane as Chairperson for the National Teaching Council.
Anxieties
Prof. Yankah was hopeful that the announcement would allay the anxieties of stakeholders waiting for the reconstitution of the respective governing councils of the universities.
He said the beginning of the inauguration of the governing councils should come as a welcoming relief to many, “including those assembled here, who have been virtually sitting on tenterhooks in the past few weeks, and wondering if the governing councils of the various universities would ever be reconstituted to allow public universities to take decisions that are statutorily the preserve of governing councils."