NAB – Adomonline.com

EducationMark for private universities in Ghana

Joshua Tigo — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 16:42:04 +0000

Ghana saw the emergence of private higher education in the early 1990s. Since then, there has been an exponential increase in the number of private universities in Ghana.

Apart from the exponential growth, which is encouraging, the private higher education sector has had its fair share of widespread concerns about the compromise of quality and standards at some of the private universities.

It is no doubt that the increase in the number of private universities in Ghana has further increased access to higher education, which is one of the tenets of education.

However, it appears that access has been achieved at the expense of quality and relevance of the educational provision.

Private universities have come to stay and are contributing to providing the human resources needed by Ghana’s labour market. It is therefore imperative that the sector is supported to perform this important function.

An internationally tested approach for supporting social sectors to strengthen their quality of output and improve standards is benchmarking.

Benchmarking is a widely used tool to collate comprehensive data on agreed performance indicators which is accessible to universities.

The tool takes stock of how well universities are performing in satisfying their teaching and research obligations.

When universities have access to such a data about their peers or competitors, they can compare and take management decisions to improve their quality systems.

In a research carried out on the quality assurance mechanisms in some private universities in Ghana, it became apparent that data collection and benchmarking were not robust in the private higher education sector.

The outcome of the research supports a 2016 World Bank report which concluded that most African universities do not have the mechanisms that would enable them to benchmark their performance with their peers.

With about 42 private universities in Ghana in 2012, currently, there are over 80 private universities in Ghana and as such, there is a dire need for the sector to take stock of how it is fulfilling its education and research responsibilities.

In filling this gap, Education Quality Network (EQN) is currently developing ‘EducationMark’, a benchmarking tool to serve as an online repository or a one-stop performance management shop for private universities in Ghana to share and access data about how their peers are performing.

The EQN looks forward to collaborating with private universities in Ghana in a bid to creating an online space where comprehensive knowledge on best practices on costs management, access, quality management and relevance of the education they provide is accessible.

Most importantly, benchmarking will help improve quality standards in the sector and leverage the universities’ position on the quality spectrum.

In addition, benchmarking will, ultimately, cultivate a data collection culture among the private universities.

AUTHOR: Jo-Jo Odjidja (PhD), Education Quality Assurance Consultant, Education Quality Network EMAIL: eqnoffice@gmail.com

Beware! Illegal universities all over the place – NAB

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 08:18:20 +0000

The National Accreditation Board (NAB)has said there are close to 50 tertiary institutions operating without accreditation, which means they are awarding certificates that are unapproved.
Listed on the board’s website, about 46 of the ‘illegal’ institutions are local while two of them are foreign.
Already, employers complain about the quality of graduates at all levels of education, with some decidedly giving preference to Ghanaians who have schooled abroad.
The Greater Accra and the Ashanti Regions lead the chat as having the most number of these schools, which are dotted across the country.
According to the accreditation board, these institutions have not been accredited as tertiary institutions to run diploma or any other tertiary programmes in Ghana.
It also says they are not mandated to award or issue any academic or professional certificates.
“Neither the institutions nor their programmes are accredited by the National Accreditation Board. Employers and potential students are advised to consult the NAB before enrolling in any tertiary institution in Ghana,” it said.
“This is by no means an exhaustive list of institutions which have not been accredited to operate and award qualifications. The board will continue adding to the list as and when any more come to its notice.”
An accredited institution is a public or private institution that has been given full authority to operate as an academic institution by the government-mandated body.
A diploma is normally awarded by a tertiary institution after a candidate pursues a course of study spanning one to two years.
Tertiary institutions include a university, university college, and Post-Secondary Diploma awarding institution, professional body awarding certificates or diplomas or professional training institution.
The board, in a new policy, has said potential investors in university education will have to prove financial sustainability, and that they can ensure continuity of the institution.
The new policy means that financial assessment is going to be key before any private university is given accreditation to operate in the country.
Processes involved in granting authorisation include meeting with members of the Institutional Visits Committee at NAB’s Secretariat, to be attended by the Chairman and members of the Proposed Institutions Preparatory Committee.
Items required include documents on proposed site, registration of institution and approval by local authorities. The proposed site must be inspected and approved by the Board before operations commence.
Authorisation is granted for a maximum period of three (3) years, and may be renewed for another three (3) years.
Most private university colleges fund the institution’s and staff development from internally generated funds – and as these institutions expand and initiate more degree programmes, the cost of graduate-training increases.
They are, therefore, unable to invest in staff development to satisfy standards required by the National Accreditation Board.

NAB blows GH¢727k on allowances without approval – AG report

Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:17:28 +0000

The Auditor General has discovered the National Accreditation Board (NAB) for the period of January 1 to December 31, 2014 failed to obtain Ministerial approval for Board and Committee allowances to the tune of GH¢726,886.52.
This was in contravention of section 7 of the NAB’s Act 2007 (Act 744) which requires the board members and members of a committee of the board to be paid allowances approved by the Minister of Education in consultation with the Minister responsible for finance.
The anomaly/failure, according to the 2015 Auditor General’s report, occurred due to “failure of the Minister [then] to respond to the request of the board and management’s failure to follow-up for a ministerial approval for the payment of the board and committee allowances.”
Also, the report said the NAB failed to submit Internally Generated Fund (IGF) expenditure returns to the Ministry of Finance to the tune of GH¢4, 604,469.50.
According to the Retention of Funds Act 2007, Act 735, section (5a) on utilization of IGFs, “Ministries, Departments and Agencies which have approval to retain and utilize IGFs can only incur expenditure funded by the IGFs for a particular month if the records of collection for the previous month, bank lodgements, expenditure returns for the previous month have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance.”
But the Auditor General’s review of the Board’s collection and utilization of its IGFs amounting to over GH¢4million for the period 2014 revealed that “management has not submitted its records of collection, bank lodgements and expenditure returns to the Ministry of Finance.”
“Management [of the Board] failed to adhere to the dictates of Act 735 section (5a). Failure to adhere to the dictates of the act could lead to unapproved expenditure,” added the report being scrutinized by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC).

NDC School won’t award certificates – Koku Anyidoho

Adwoa Agyeman — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 16:29:54 +0000

Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the party’s school will not award any certificate.
He explained that, National Institute of Social Democracy School is an in-house institute to train party foot soldiers about the ideology of the NDC.
Koku Anyidoho’s comment comes after the National Accreditation Board (NAB) said they had not accredited the NDC to operate its National Institute of Social Democracy.
The Executive Secretary of NAB, Mr Kwame Dattey, said though the school does not have the NAB’s blessing to operate, it will not be necessary if it will be awarding only certificates.
“As far as we are concerned, our operation doesn’t fall under their rules now. So when the time comes, we will call on them for accreditation. For now, we are not an institute that is demanding the NAB’s blessings. We don’t need it for now. We are not running any full programmes for our members. That will be in future,” he stated.
But on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Wednesday, Koku Anyidoho said they don’t need accreditation to run the school.
He indicated that the National Institute of Social Democracy School will not award a diploma or degree certificates to graduants of the school.
The NDC deputy General Secretary noted that, the school has become necessary because a lot of members lack knowledge about the party’s constitution and ideology.
“Some NDC members don’t even know if we are in opposition, the National Chairman automatically becomes the leader so we need the school to train them” he added.
Koku Anyidoho encouraged members to enroll in their numbers to learn more about their beloved party.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Institute of Social Democracy has opened its maiden admission for a programme in political leadership & party organisation.
The only course available now is geared towards imbibing in potential students the historical events that led to the formation of the NDC, values and principles that underpin the social democratic ideology of the NDC and how the ideology has been used in governing in different countries including Ghana.
The course outline and module covers the history of the NDC, the philosophy, principles and practice of social democracy, political leadership and party organisation and political activism.