The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has given the green light to more than 1000 academic programmes in public universities nationwide.

According to GTEC these approved programmess aim to enhance the efficiency of the academic calendar in tertiary institutions.

The Director-General of GTEC, Dr. Ahmed Abdulai Jinapor, elaborated on the decision, highlighting the establishment of a new regulatory body tasked with overseeing the implementation of these programmes across public universities.

Dr. Jinapor stressed the importance of universities adhering to their respective areas of expertise.

“We want institutions to stay in their niche, institutions should stay in their mandate areas. Institutions cannot be doing anything and everything,” he noted.

He expressed concern about the prevailing practice where technology-focused institutions venture into non-technical programmess such as Akan, Twi, and Dagbani.

The Director-General outlined the purpose of the proposed regulatory body, stressing its role in ensuring universities operate within their designated niches. 

He added that approved programmess should align with the developmental goals of the country and should not contribute to saturated markets within the economy.

Dr. Jinapor stressed the need for a more strategic approach to tertiary education, focusing on relevance and alignment with national developmental aspirations. 

He explained: “Hence, this body will ensure that you fall within your niche, and the programmes must have relevance to the developmental aspirations of this country. And such programmes should not feed into saturated markets of this economy.”

Source: claasfmonline.com