Public University Bill on hold until December election

Ghanaian lawmakers have listened to public criticism against the Public University Bill 2020 that was tabled in parliament and have decided to put it on hold, because there is the need for further consideration, ranking member on the education committee of the house, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, has said.

Parliament is preparing to go on recess in preparation for the 7 December 2020 national election and this means that the bill will not be considered until a new parliament resumes in 2021. Even so, considering the wide-ranging criticism, the new government may opt to withdraw it.

Minister of Education Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who introduced the bill in April 2019, said it was meant "to provide the procedure for the establishment of public universities, [set out] principles for the management of public universities, [determine] the legal status of public universities, the procedure for financing public universities and administration and supervision of the activities of public universities and related matters”.

However, education committee member Nortsu-Kotoe said the committee had looked at the bill and recommended that “in view of the criticisms and the number of petitions that we have received, it will be better for the government to hold on with the passing of the bill because there is the need for greater consultation. So, it will not feature [as part of] the bills we are considering for this meeting of parliament”.

Bill not ‘constitutionally wholesome’

Among some of the initial critics of the bill is former president John Dramani Mahama who is running against incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 7 December election and has signalled that, if he wins, the bill will be scrapped.

In a statement, former president Mahama said: “Government must listen to the concerns of key stakeholders and withdraw the Public University Bill. I want to, however, assure the people of Ghana and the academic community that, should the government proceed and pass the bill into an act of parliament, I will not hesitate to initiate steps for its immediate repeal, as a matter of priority, if, God willing, I assume office as president in January 2021.”

Another critic who has been the dean of the University of Ghana school of law (UGSL), Raymond Atuguba, asked parliament to throw the proposed bill out because it goes against the country’s laws and would need many amendments to make it "constitutionally wholesome".

To show his disgust, Atuguba threatened to resign from the university in order to take legal action if the controversial bill was passed into law. Among the issues raised about the bill was that it would interfere with the academic freedom of universities.

Education policy research and advocacy group, Africa Education Watch, which also called for the withdrawal of the bill in May this year, said in a memorandum to the education committee that sections of the bill paved the way for an end to the practice whereby prospective students purchased multiple university application forms to assure admission. This would be possible through the proposed Centralised Applications Processing Service.

Minister has power to interfere

“This practice [of multiple application forms] has caused the exclusion of many economically deprived students from accessing tertiary education, and amounts to extortion from desperate applicants. We support this innovative proposal by the Ministry of Education,” but the group wondered how the ministry of education intended to achieve accountability by padding university councils with government appointees.

“For instance, the University of Ghana’s Council, which currently has six out of 21 members representing government, will now have nine out of 14 members representing government; an increase in government representation from 28.5% to 64%,” Africa Education Watch said. It added that “the hypothesis of increasing government representation on public boards merely to promote accountability is not supported with any empirical evidence”.

According to Africa Education Watch, institutions with boards that are dominated by government representatives have an unenviable reputation of being mismanaged due to unnecessary political interference in their governance and management.

The organisation also disagreed with the government on the provision in the bill that the minister of education could give policy directives through the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to a public university and that the public university should comply.

This “virtually grants the minister of education overreaching powers to interfere in the activities of all public universities, a situation that does not necessarily assure the accountability and transparency the bill seeks to achieve”.

They recommended that the composition of the university council should not comprise more than 30% appointees of the president and representatives of government institutions whose heads are appointed by the president or the minister of education.

“Should there be justification to dilute the dominance of the university members on the councils, representatives of the traditional authority in whose jurisdiction the university is situated, civil society organisations, industry, alumni associations and faith-based representatives may be included to add public interest value,” the organisation added.