The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has rejected the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) proposal to make the rules for promoting lecturers and other senior academic staff uniform across all public universities.

In late May 2026, GTEC, through a formal letter circulated to university councils and the Ministry of Education, argued that there were disparities in promotion standards among universities, which they believe should be corrected with uniform criteria.

However, in a formal letter addressed to the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, through the UTAG National Secretariat in Accra on Thursday, June 4, the association described the proposal as “unconvincing and insufficiently grounded”.

According to them, there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed and sorted before any further concerns, such as this, could be considered, labelling it as a policy of inadequate stakeholder consultation.

“The rationale provided by GTEC is unconvincing and insufficiently grounded. We cannot accept harmonisation of promotion guidelines without addressing the broader structural challenges facing our universities,” parts of the statement read.

The Association went on to question GTEC’s claims of disparities among academic staff, saying that:

“We respectfully ask whether academic staff are the only category of university personnel for whom disparities exist? Public universities were established with distinct mandates, governance structures, and academic cultures.”

UTAG-KNUST believes that “standardising promotion criteria risks undermining autonomy and disregards the uniqueness that defines each institution’s academic identity.”

The association also urged GTEC to focus on addressing broader challenges confronting the tertiary education sector, including inadequate staffing, poor student-to-teacher ratios, limited laboratory infrastructure, and other conditions affecting teaching and learning.

“We urge GTEC to focus instead on the classification and tiering of universities, and on resolving disparities in staffing, infrastructure, and teaching conditions, which are far more pressing,” they added.

It further called for greater attention to the classification or tiering of Ghana’s higher education system, arguing that such reforms would have a more meaningful impact than what it described as peripheral interventions targeting promotion procedures.

The association cited challenges facing under-resourced institutions such as the University of Environment and Sustainable Development and urged the Commission to prioritise strengthening capacity across universities instead of enforcing uniform standards.

UTAG-KNUST further indicated that its members would be unwilling to support the implementation of the proposed framework unless significant disparities in staffing levels and infrastructure among public universities are addressed.

The association maintained that existing governance structures already provide adequate autonomy to university councils and argued that the current promotion system is functioning effectively.

“The system is not broken and therefore does not require this form of intervention. Unless these fundamental issues are addressed, our members will be unwilling to cooperate with management in implementing the proposed framework,” the association stated.

Meanwhile, not very long ago, the government was given a 14-day ultimatum by the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to dismiss the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, and his deputy, Prof. Augustine Ocloo, from office, citing what it describes as a coercive administrative style.

This was contained in a petition addressed to President John Dramani Mahama in a press briefing held yesterday, Monday, April 13.

UTAG accused GTEC’s leadership of regulatory overreach, issuing unilateral directives, and adopting what it describes as a coercive administrative style.

“UTAG respectfully calls on the President for the following reliefs: the Director-General and Deputy Director-General of GTEC must be relieved of their current roles to restore confidence in the tertiary education sector and reset regulatory posture.

“Government must urgently operationalise the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) through a clear and unambiguous Legislative Instrument (LI), including mandatory consultative rule-making, clear limits on interference in internal governance, and a transparent appeals mechanism against regulatory decisions.

“GTEC circulars dated 30 September 2025 and 1 October 2025 should be withdrawn with immediate effect and subjected to structured stakeholder consultation and harmonisation with existing legal frameworks and negotiated conditions of service,” UTAG National President, Prof. Vera Fiador, said.

Prof. Vera noted that a circular released by GTEC on September 30, 2025, discredited some tertiary institutions and blocked admissions into unaccredited programmes, citing quality assurance issues.

The President of the University of Ghana chapter of UTAG, Dr Jerry Joe Harrison, warned that the association may withdraw its services to GTEC or embark on industrial action if their demands are not met.

“We have several tools at our disposal, including withdrawing all services that we render to GTEC. Of course, to the extreme, industrial disharmony can be activated because if members of UTAG are not happy doing the jobs they are supposed to do, there is no point remaining in the classroom. This issue we are talking about directly affects us, and the students we teach as well,” he said.