The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is allaying fears of stakeholders over an Auditor-General’s report that revealed majority of programmes offered by the University are not accredited.
The University Relations Officer (URO), Dr Noris Bekoe, says there is no cause for alarm since all certificates issued by the University are valid despite waiting for re-accreditation from Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
The Auditor-General’s report for 2021 has revealed that out of 360 programmes run by KNUST, only 61 have been accredited.
The report has received mixed reactions from the public with hopes of some alumni hanging in balance as to whether the report has any effect on their certificates.
Dr Bekoe says nothing binds the University from running a programme while waiting for re-accreditation from GTEC.
“It doesn’t work like if you apply for re-accreditation for a programme you should stop running that programme. If we go by this, all universities in the country would close down. The process has always been like that, you apply for the re-accreditation while the program runs,” he said.
Speaking to Nhyira FM’s Nana Jantuah on Kuro Yi Mu Nsem, Dr Bekoe said the University has submitted every document needed for the re-accreditation, but the delay is coming from GTEC.
“Some of these issues are very sensitive and I wish it doesn’t go public, but whatever we have to do has been done. We have written letters to GTEC, but their works are huge hence the delay and we can’t do anything about that, but keep pushing,” said the KNUST URO.
He is suggesting a decentralization of GTEC operations to at least three offices in the country to fasten the pace of the accreditation process since all universities in the country get their accreditations from the Commission.
“What we are suggesting is that the government should allow them to hire more hands or decentralise the institution to at least have three branches with one in Kumasi taking care of the northern sector, one in Accra and another place. With this they wouldn’t delay in working on accreditation documents,” Dr Bekoe suggested.