University of Ghana Collegiate Governance System Under Review

The University of Ghana (UG) has started reviewing its collegiate system of governance to improve the administration of the university and academic activities.

Under the system, introduced in the 2014/2015 academic year, faculties and departments were merged into four colleges of Health Sciences; Basic and Applied Sciences; Humanities and Education.

The aim was to amongst others, reduce bureaucracy in the administration process by decentralising the central administration and rationalising programmes and courses.

However, four years after its implementation, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu said there had been the need to review it.

At a congregation to confer degrees on about 1000 students from the Colleges of Health Science, Education and Humanities on Saturday, he said, a review panel has been set up, chaired by former VC, Prof. Akilakpa Sawyer.

He said the remit of the panel was to identify the shortcomings in the system and make recommendations for improvement to support the university's strategic priorities.

"[The panel] is currently interacting with major stakeholders of the university and will present its recommendations to the university soon" Prof. Owusu stated.

According to the VC, aside the ongoing review, the university had undergone another by National Accreditation Board (NAB) on diverse ways and was committed to implementation of recommendations.

He also disclosed that the university had set in motion a process to review its four-year degree programme and the grading system and that the report from the review team was being finalised for implementation.

On academic work, he said a number of new courses had been approved by the university academic board, including Executive Master of Science in Fisheries Administration and management, Doctor of Philosophy in health physics and radiation and a functional law course for undergraduates.

He said the University had forged new partnership with a number of institutions in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America to promote research and other areas of academic work.

Prof. Owusu advised the graduands to eschew greed, quick fixes, and crave for money as they were the roots of many evils in society but to aspire for the values of discipline, integrity and contentment in daily endeavours.

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