Some policies and directives from government undermine autonomy of public universities in Ghana

Ghana’s oldest public university, the University of Ghana is 75 years old, but some policies and directives from the government and other state institutions have been identified as counterproductive and factors that undermine the mandates and autonomy of public universities in the country.

For example, during transitional periods university councils are dissolved. The Councils are dissolved under the Statutory Boards and Corporations in Section 14(1) of Presidential (Transition) Act 2012, Act 845.

There is also the subject of approval of fees by Parliament under the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions), 2022, Act 1080.

Presenting a paper Tuesday December 19, 2023, at a Policy Dialogue held by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) on the topic: ‘Managing Ghana’s Public Universities in a New Age’, Prof Joseph R. A. Ayee said issues of governance and management have serious implications for mandates of universities.

“They have either influenced or have been influenced by uncertainties: declining funding, relevance, increasing competition, and globalization,” he said.

Prof Ayee indicated that the mandates of universities in Ghana have followed the trajectory of others in Africa: initial colonial project to Africanization to the post-1990 refocus of the mandates by neo-liberalism (New Public Management (NPM) and SAPs) – entrepreneurial/enterprise institutions.

According to Prof Ayee, three factors have contributed to the renewed interest and attention to the governance and management of universities in Ghana. He said these are the transformation of their role and mission from being colonial creations to become entrepreneurial institutions, the demand for relevance from several stakeholders, and the pressure of globalization.

The paper which is divided into eight sections and based on desk research, examines the governance and management related developments in Ghana’s public universities during the post-1990s era in which neo-liberal reforms were introduced largely occasioned by the principles and practices of the New Public Management (NPM), often referred to as managerialism.

More specifically, it discusses how post 1990 governance/management structures (legal, policy and institutional frameworks including reforms implemented) have succeeded in curing the ills for which they were designed and whether the new models will be able to sustain the institutions going forward. By focusing on the examination of the management and governance frameworks, the paper will deepen an understanding of how this is supporting the universities to pursue their mandates in Ghana, he said.

Among other things, the paper found that first, the governance and management of universities are important because they not only have implications for their mission(s) or mandates but also emphasize the dilemma that universities face in dealing with their different interconnected roles vis-a-vis uncertainties such as declining funding, demands for relevance, increasing competition, and globalization.  

Secondly, the mandates of universities in Ghana follow the trajectory of others in African whereby  they have evolved from the initial colonial project, the attempt at designing national mandates  through Africanization, and the post 1990s refocus of their mandates in the face of decline, to the  emergence of the NPM and structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) whereby universities have  been encouraged to become corporate and entrepreneurial entities through reform of their legal,  policy and institutional frameworks.  

Additionally, he urged that the interference of government in the appointment of some Vice-Chancellors, which has sometimes delayed the process and created pressure and uncertainty in some of the universities should be addressed.

Thirdly, some policies and directives from the government and other state institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Parliament, and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission on governance, management, funding, and admissions are counterproductive and sometimes undermine the vision, mission, and autonomy of the universities despite their being public institutions that need to be seen as accountable, transparent, and responsive.

“Examples of such policies include the dissolution  of Councils under the Statutory Boards and Corporations in section 14(1) of the Presidential  (Transition) Act 2012, Act 845, in a transition period, and the approval of fees by Parliament under  the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions), 2022, Act 1080,” he said.

The fourth thing the paper found, is the existence and continuous development of the legal, policy and institutional framework are in themselves evidence of the capacity to initiate reforms because the framework is meant to solve past, current, and future problems as has been emphasized in the literature.

“In addition, the ability of the universities to manage crises is evidence of their capacity to initiate and manage reform because of the crisis-reform nexus,” he added.

The fifthly one is, the universities have implemented NPM restructuring reform strategies such as decentralization, expansion of internally-generated funds (IGF) access, through the transformation  of curricula, teaching and learning, a shift in vision to becoming research intensive, digitalization, public-private partnerships (PPPs), quality assurance and crisis management with varying degrees  of emphasis, success, and challenges because of their uniqueness.

They, however, reinforce the difficulties inherent in implementing managerialism including issues of relevance, access, equity, and the “publicness” of their mandates. 

The sixth, is that the NPM reform strategies are incomplete because they have not considered performance management with key performance indicators (KPIs) and the uniformity or otherwise of promotion criteria in the universities.  

“Seventh, the realization of the mission and mandates of the universities should be seen as work in progress, because of the evolving and new demands, competition, globalization, and funding issues associated with the realization of the mandates,” he said.

Based on the findings, he made some recommendations including the following:

That the University Councils should be excluded from the list of “Statutory Boards and Corporations” in the Presidential (Transition) Act 2012, Act 845. Called for the amendment of the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions, 2022 (Act 1080) to give universities a free hand to charge fees to finance their operations. 

“Limit directives that will not frustrate but facilitate the mandates and operations of universities. Revisit the mission(s) or mandates of universities by taking into consideration three important relationships that the university in Africa must navigate and negotiate: (i) it should be politically distant from the state; (ii) it should be culturally close to society; and (iii) it should be intellectually linked to wider scholarly and scientific values of the world of learning,” he said.

Additionally, he urged that the interference of government in the appointment of some Vice-Chancellors, which has sometimes delayed the process and created pressure and uncertainty in some of the universities should be addressed.

He noted that there is no single best institutional framework because of the uniqueness of the universities and their peculiar circumstances. The features of the traditional collegial, bureaucratic corporate/enterprise models of management are being practised in all the universities. 

He called for, among others the effective complementarity and partnership between the governance and management structures and shared governance, which is the allocation of accountability to the council, academic matters to the academic board and faculty, and managing the institutions to the administration.

“Managing a university is a complex venture because of several structures and stakeholders,” he said.

The policy dialogue was held under the GAAS project – ‘Motivating higher education reforms in Ghana – towards equity and sustainability, which is ’funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi

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