THE ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION COUNCILS …chet.org.za/files/Ghana ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF HE... · Functions of the NCTE 16 ... The Higher Education Councils and Commissions

THE ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS IN AFRICA

A case study of the Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education

Tracy Bailey2014

Published by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET),House Vincent, First Floor, 10 Brodie Road, Wynberg Mews, Wynberg, 7800, South AfricaTelephone: +27(0)21 763 7100Fax: +27(0)21 763 7117Email: [email protected]

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2014 Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET)

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iii

ContentsAcronyms and abbreviations iv

1. Introduction 1 1.1 About the study 1 1.2 About this case study report 4

2. The governance of tertiary education in Ghana 6 2.1 The tertiary education landscape 6 2.2 The Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education 10

3. Functions of the NCTE 16 3.1 Policy advice 16 3.2 Financial oversight 18 3.3 Determining and monitoring norms and standards 19 3.4 Publishing information on tertiary education in Ghana 21 3.5 Roles in the governance of tertiary education in Ghana 21

4. Key issues 25 4.1 Lack of research capacity and difficulties in collecting data 25 4.2 Autonomy and independence 26

List of sources 28 Reports, articles and legislation 28 Interview/email respondents and feedback on draft case study report 28

iv the role and functions of higher education councils and commissions in africa

Acronyms and abbreviationsCHET Centre for Higher Education TransformationCOTVET Council for Technical and Vocational Education and TrainingGNCHE Ghana National Council for Higher EducationHERANA Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in AfricaMoE Ministry of EducationNAB National Accreditation BoardNABPTEX National Board for Professional and Technician ExaminationsNCTE National Council for Tertiary EducationPNDCL Provisional National Defence Council LawTE/HE tertiary education or higher educationTEI tertiary education institutionTVET technical and vocational education and trainingUK United Kingdom

a case study of the ghana national council for tertiary education 1

Introduction1.1 About the study

The key research programme of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA) Phase 1 (2007–2011) focused on the link between higher education and development in Africa. The overall findings and analyses were published in, amongst others, eight country reports,1 a synthesis report, and a book – Universities and Economic Development in Africa – launched in August 2011.2 HERANA Phase 2 (2011–2014) is further developing the analyses and findings of the first phase through a number of higher education projects.

One of the analytical propositions of the Universities and Economic Development in Africa project was that for higher education to make a sustainable contribution to development in a country, there has to be national-level coordination of knowledge policies and of the key actors in the system. The study found that tertiary or higher education (TE/HE) councils and commissions had been established in each of the eight countries. More often than not, these agencies were mandated to undertake a regulatory accreditation function and had, over time, assumed additional roles and functions. It became apparent to the research team that these organisations could be key players in national coordination and implementation monitoring.

The Higher Education Councils and Commissions in Africa project was initiated in late 2011. The main aim of this comparative study is to explore the role of the councils and commissions in the governance of tertiary education in the same eight African countries through their mandated functions. The following TE/HE councils and commissions are included in the study:3

• The Botswana Tertiary Education Council (BTEC);4

• The Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE);• The Kenya Commission for Higher Education (KCHE);5

• The Mauritius Tertiary Education Commission (MTEC);• The Mozambique National Council for Quality Assurance (CNAQ);• The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE);• The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU); and• The Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).

1 The eight countries are: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

2 Cloete et al. (2011). See the CHET website for further information on these outputs: www.chet.org.za.

3 Some of the acronyms for the councils/commissions used in this report have been invented in order to distinguish between organisations with the same acronyms (e.g. ‘TEC’ refers to both the Botswana Tertiary Education Council and the Mauritius Tertiary Education Commission).

4 This agency was reconstituted as the Human Resources Development Council in 2013.

5 This agency was reconstituted as the Kenya Commission for University Education in 2013.

1

2 the role and functions of higher education councils and commissions in africa

The broader study set out to explore the following research questions:

• What functions are these councils and commissions mandated by law to undertake?• Why and how were these organisations established, and how are they structured and resourced?• How have their mandates, structure, capacity and operations evolved over time?• What factors have impacted on the capacity of these organisations to carry out their respective

mandates?• What role(s) do the councils and commissions fulfil in the governance of tertiary education in

their respective countries?

It was assumed that factors both internal and external to an organisation impact on its raison d’etre and the way it functions and operates. Internal factors include the way in which the organisation is structured and composed, its legal status and powers, and the resources available to it to carry out its mandate. External factors include funding sources and arrangements, shifts in the broader governance system, and interaction with other key stakeholders. A simple distinction between ‘function’ and ‘role’ is maintained in the study, where a function refers to activities an individual or organisation engages in, in order to carry out their role in a particular context.

There are also two sub-components to the broader project, each with its own report, that informed the broader case studies:

• A comparative analysis of the legislation that gives rise to and mandates the councils/commissions in the study;6 and

• A comparative analysis of how the councils/commissions are financed, and how they carry out their funding functions (where applicable).7

This project has been undertaken by the following multidisciplinary research team:

Project leader and researcher

• Tracy Bailey (CHET consultant, South Africa): Seven case study reports and synthesis report

Researchers • Danwood Chirwa (Head of Public Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa): Report on the legislative frameworks of councils/commissions and reviewing the legislative aspects of the draft case study reports

• Praveen Mohadeb (former Executive Director of the Mauritius Tertiary Education Commission): Report on the financing and funding of the councils/commissions

6 This sub-component includes seven of the eight countries; Mozambique was excluded because the legislation is in Portuguese. See Chirwa (2014).

7 See Mohadeb (2013).


• Patricio Langa (Faculty of Education, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique): Mozambique case study report

Research assistants

• Monique Ritter (CHET consultant, South Africa): Sourcing key documents and desk research, compiling background information for the interviews and comparative analysis tables

• Samuel Kiiru (Institute of Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya): Compiling background information for the study

• Gillian Bailey (CHET consultant, South Africa): Interview transcriptions

Project advisors • °Ase Gornitzka (Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway)• Nico Cloete (Director of CHET, South Africa)

In each country, the team worked closely with a key contact/resource person. In Ghana, our contacts were Paul Effah (former Executive Secretary, NCTE) who assisted in providing background information, scheduling interviews, responding to queries and attending work-in-progress seminars, and Jerry Sarfo (Assistant to the Executive Secretary, NCTE), who assisted in scheduling interviews and responding to queries.

The case studies have been developed primarily via extensive desk research and interviews with key informants. Desk research included preparing background information to inform the site visits (including information about each country’s tertiary education system, the councils/commissions and the relevant legislation and policies), as well as gleaning information from policy documents, annual reports and other relevant publications and websites as part of the development of the case study reports.

Site visits were undertaken by the project leader between March and October 2012, to conduct interviews with senior leadership and staff at each of the councils/commissions, and with at least one key individual in the parent ministries. In Ghana, interviews were conducted during May 2012 (see List of sources). These interviews were recorded and later transcribed.

The draft case study reports were developed during 2013 and were sent to the councils/commissions (chief executive officers and key resource people) for feedback and comment in October/November of that year. The case reports were finalised during March 2014. A synthesis and comparative analysis of the roles and functions of the eight councils/commissions in the study was published in 2014.8

8 See Bailey (2014).


1.2 About this case study report

This report draws together the documentary and interview data on the NCTE that was collected and analysed during 2012/2013. It aims to provide a detailed description of the creation of the organisation, how it is structured, what its primary functions are, the challenges it faces in carrying out these functions, as well as the broader (national) context within which it operates. The report also provides an analysis of the functions of the NCTE and what role(s) it plays in the governance of the tertiary education sector in Ghana.

Some of the discussion relating to the legislative aspects of the councils/commissions’ composition, operations and functions drew on overviews of the founding Acts of Parliament prepared by Danwood Chirwa as background for the site visits and interviews in 2012. These overviews remain unpublished but have been drawn upon in the case study reports, and are in some way incorporated into Chirwa’s (2014) comparative report.

It should be noted that case studies that attempt to construct a relatively coherent picture and account of an organisation within its broader historical and political contexts, always run the risk of becoming evaluative, even when they do not intend to (and this one certainly does not), and of being selective, time-bound and incomplete. To the extent that there are evaluative aspects to this case study, these are made in relation to the mandates of the organisation as set out in the relevant Act, and in terms of its capacity to carry out these mandates, as reported by interview respondents and in official documents. It was beyond the scope of the study to seek external opinion on the success or otherwise of the organisation’s operations. Attempts to mitigate the limitations of the inevitably selective, time-bound and incomplete nature of the case study have included drawing on a variety of available key sources (people, documents and websites), and engaging council/commission representatives in checking the accuracy of and interpretations in their respective case study reports.

Finally, a note about the terms ‘tertiary education’ and ‘higher education’, which both appear in the names of the councils/commissions in the study and refer to their different spheres of operation. There is some vagueness and interchangeability around their use in the literature, in policy and other official documents, and on organisational websites (such as those of the councils/commissions or their parent ministries). Furthermore, what is included as either tertiary or higher varies across different countries and higher education systems in terms of qualification structures, institutional types and so on. For the purposes of this study, ‘tertiary education’ is taken to include two sub-sectors: further or technical and vocational education and training (TVET), which is offered in a variety of public and private institutions such as colleges, technical training institutes and distance learning centres; and higher education, which is usually offered at universities or polytechnics that offer undergraduate and/or postgraduate programmes, and engage in teaching, research and/or the professions. Country-specific definitions and distinctions are highlighted in the introductions to the case study reports.


The remainder of this report is organised into three parts:

• The first part provides a brief overview of the tertiary education governance landscape in Ghana, including the main bodies and their mandated functions, and the relevant legislation and policies in place. We then provide information – both legal and sociological – on the structure and composition of the NCTE itself.

• In the second part, we focus on the mandated functions of the NCTE – as they are outlined in the relevant legislation, and how they have been implemented, developed and changed over time. We also consider the roles that the NCTE plays in the governance of tertiary education in Ghana through a categorisation of its functions.

• The third part concludes the report by exploring some of the factors that were affecting the NCTE’s ability to carry out its mandate at the time and highlighting the key issues emerging from the case study.


The governance of tertiary education in Ghana2.1 The tertiary education landscape

Tertiary education in Ghana encompasses all public and private post-secondary institutions. Public tertiary education institutions (TEIs) include universities,9 polytechnics, colleges of education,10 as well as other specialised professional institutions such as the Ghana Institute of Languages, the University of Professional Studies,11 the Ghana Institute of Journalism, and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. The private TEIs are similarly classified into universities, university colleges and colleges of education.12 The tertiary education sector in Ghana is relatively small but has seen some significant growth over the past decade or so. According to the current strategic plan of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE),13 enrolments in public TEIs rose from 52 712 in the 1999/2000 academic year to 283 506 in the 2012/2013 academic year. Even so, participation in tertiary education is still low in Ghana – according to the World Economic Forum’s latest figures, Ghana’s gross tertiary education enrolment rate was 12.1% in 201114 and had not changed by 2013.15

Table 1 (overleaf) provides an overview of the different tertiary education institutional types, including their number and total student enrolments.

The main government body responsible for tertiary education in Ghana is the Ministry of Education (MoE).16 The MoE has a wide-ranging portfolio and is responsible for policy, planning and monitoring for the education sector as a whole.17 Within the MoE is a Directorate for Tertiary Education, headed by a deputy minister, which is responsible for handling policy issues in the tertiary education sector. An interview respondent reported that the directorate acts as a link within the sector (e.g. by convening meetings of relevant stakeholders, including the NCTE, to deal with specific issues such as salary problems or the use of internally generated funds).18

9 Which fall within the higher education band of the broader tertiary or post-secondary education sector.

10 The colleges of education were upgraded to the status of TEIs only recently (June 2012). They were previously under the ambit of the Ghana Education Service (email correspondence, NCTE, August 2013).

11 Previously the Institute of Professional Studies.

12 Government of Ghana (2010: 11) and email correspondence (NCTE, August 2013).

13 Government of Ghana (2010: 11).

14 World Economic Forum (2012).

15 Feedback on draft case study report (January 2014).

16 Prior to December 2008, under the previous administration, tertiary education fell under the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, which was reconstituted as the MoE following the elections (email correspondence, NCTE, March 2013).


18 Interview (May 2012).

2


Table 1: Tertiary education landscape in Ghana (2012/2013)

Institutional types Total Student enrolment per institutional type

Private TEIs that offer degree programmes 42 49 445

Tutorial colleges 6 1 323

Institutions that offer distance learning programmes 5 2 279

Chartered private TEIs 3 2 314

Public specialised institutions 8 7 715

Public colleges of education 38 27 906

Publicly funded universities 9 128 326

Polytechnics 10 53 078

Private nurses’ training colleges 3 1 198

Public nurses’ training colleges 8 –

TOTAL 132 273 584 Source: Figures supplied by the Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education (January 2014).

Three other government agencies also play a role in the governance and regulation of tertiary education in Ghana. The first, and the focus of this case study, is the NCTE. The NCTE was established in 1993 as a semi-independent19 statutory body, as per the National Council for Tertiary Education Act No. 454 of 1993 (hereafter NCTE Act), to oversee all public TEIs of both university and non-university status.

The second agency is the National Accreditation Board (NAB), established in the same year via the enactment of Provisional National Defence Council Law (PNDCL) 317 of 1993, which was later replaced by the National Accreditation Board Act No. 744 of 2007. According to its website, the NAB is mandated to undertake regulatory functions relating to both public and private TEIs and their academic programmes, including the following:20

• Accredit both public and private TEIs with regard to the contents and standards of their programmes;

• Determine, in consultation with the appropriate institution or body, the programme and requirements for the proper operation of that institution and the maintenance of acceptable levels of academic or professional standards;

• Determine the equivalences of diplomas, certificates and other qualifications awarded by institutions in Ghana or elsewhere;


20 NAB website: www.nab.gov.gh.


• Publish, as it considers appropriate, the list of accredited public and private institutions at the beginning of the calendar year;

• Advise the President on the grant of charters to private TEIs; and• Perform any other functions determined by the Minister of Education.

Of the eight countries included in the broader study, only Ghana and Mozambique have the advisory and regulatory roles separated into different organisations – in Ghana, the NCTE and the NAB, respectively. A respondent described the distinction and the link between the work of the NCTE and the NAB as follows:

In terms of determining norms and standards, in terms of funding, it is [the NCTE] that is the apex. But when the [NCTE has determined the norms and standards] and has given the details to [the] NAB then, in terms of establishing new institutions and ensuring that you look at the standards and so on, that responsibility has been hived out for [the] NAB. In South Africa you have one board doing the same thing; in Nigeria one board doing the same thing. But here, in terms of policy, it is the NCTE; in practice, the technical detail is done by the NAB.21

One respondent argued that the division made the accreditation function less bureaucratic and more efficient, and that it circumvented the problem of one agency being both player (policy and implementation) and referee (regulation):22

If you made it a joint organisation, the processes of accreditation would be delayed because it would have to go through a longer route – from the Secretariat, through another committee, before it gets to the Council. But if it is with an independent autonomous organisation like the NAB, issues are dealt with faster; we are more in direct contact with the institutions. The institutions know where to report immediately on quality assurance issues, on accreditation issues. So it’s like there should be a policy body and an implementation body. It’s good to keep the two separate so that you are not a player and a referee in the same game at the same time … One disadvantage is: if you make it too big an organisation, it becomes very nebulous, and it’s difficult to look at it as a separate or discrete part of the bigger organisation. So it’s good to keep it small and effective.

The third tertiary education governance agency is the National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations (NABPTEX), which is responsible for formulating and administering examinations, certification and standards for skills, and syllabus competencies for non-university institutions.




Other bodies involved in the governance of the education system in general include the Ghana Education Service (pre-tertiary education), the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), and the Non-Formal Education Division (planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of non-formal education matters).

At the time of the study (2012/2013), there was no single comprehensive policy for tertiary education in Ghana; rather, policies were contained in different documents. The NCTE’s 2009 annual report made mention of a draft tertiary education document that ‘assembles all policies on tertiary education and its role in national development’ and covers other issues relating to ‘access, equity, quality and relevance’, the ‘centrality of science and technology’, and the ‘importance of Technical Vocational Education and Training’ (TVET), amongst others.23 However, an interview respondent reported via email that the first draft tertiary education policy had been drafted but not published. Instead, the NCTE was in the process of developing a new policy for the tertiary sector and was thus organising a policy dialogue to take place in May 2013.24

The MoE’s Education Strategic Plan 2003–201525 covers policies, targets and strategies for all education levels, including tertiary. The NCTE’s current strategic plan,26 which covers the period 2010–2014, is, according to an interview respondent, derived from the national development plan.27 The strategic thrusts of the plan include:

• Promoting attractive options in tertiary education;• Facilitating equitable access to quality tertiary education;• Facilitating research in tertiary education, particularly in national development priority areas;• Promoting the effective regulation, management and planning of tertiary education;• Facilitating science, technology and TVET in tertiary education;• Building the capacity of the Council and its Secretariat;• Facilitating collaboration in tertiary education; and• Developing a congenial physical working environment for the NCTE Secretariat.28

There is no human resource plan for the sector (i.e. a document that sets out priorities and targets for skills for the labour market), something that one respondent suggested should be done in collaboration with the appropriate institutions and agencies such as the National Development Planning Commission.

23 NCTE (2011).

24 The outcomes of the policy dialogue were reported in University World News: www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2013083015111012 (accessed September 2013).

25 Government of Ghana (2003).

26 Government of Ghana (2010).




2.2 The Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education

Origins

The current NCTE was built onto earlier organisational forms, starting with the Ghana National Council for Higher Education (GNCHE), which had been established in 1962. According to an interview respondent, the original GNCHE was modelled on the UK University Grants’ Committee, that is, as a funding agency. The agency would put together a budget for the sector and, if approved, disburse the allocated funds to institutions. The focus was on higher education because there were only universities at the time: ‘The GNCHE was modelled on the University Grants Committee in the UK, because of our [colonial] history ... basically as a funding agency.’29

After the coup in 1966, the government abolished the GNCHE. According to one interview respondent, there had been a growing perception that the GNCHE was a ‘mere post office’, unable to ‘discipline the institutions (so to speak)’: ‘the institutions were doing what they wanted; they were too powerful. So government said there was no need [for the GNCHE] after the coup in 1966.’30 The GNCHE was then re-established in 1969, only to be abolished again in 1972 with another change in government.

The idea for a new council – this time for tertiary education – emerged during the process of drafting the new Constitution in 1992. According to a respondent, the idea was that the new council would have general oversight of tertiary education and ‘give direction’ to the sector, while still carrying out the funding agency role.31 Importantly, being established by the new Constitution meant that the new organisation could not simply be abolished, as had happened in the past. While the Constitution made broad provision for the establishment of the NCTE, it was the NCTE Act that specified that the NCTE would be responsible for the development of tertiary education in Ghana.

Finally, according to one respondent, part of the rationale for the establishment of the NCTE was also to act as a ‘buffer’ between government and TEIs, particularly with regard to respecting academic freedom and autonomy in institutions: ‘Therefore, at the time this body was set up, it was to prevent government interference or political interference of the institutions. So government dealt with institutions through us and institutions dealt with government through us.’32

Structure, composition and accountability

The NCTE comprises the Council, a number of committees, and a Secretariat, which undertakes the day-to-day running of the organisation, as depicted in Figure 1.






Figure 1: Structure of the Ghana National Council for Tertiary Education (2013)

COUNCIL(19 members)

Planning, Research & Policy

Development Corporate AffairsPublications &

Public Relations Finance

COUNCIL COMMITTEES(Finance; Academic;

Infrastructure; Appointments & Promotions)

SECRETARIAT(45 staff members) Executive

Secretary

Deputy Executive Secretary

According to the legislation, the NCTE shall have 19 members with the following composition:33

• A Chairperson, who shall be a person of wide academic and administrative experience;• One person with extensive experience in university work;• Two heads of universities and university colleges in Ghana representing the universities and

university colleges on a rotational basis;• A principal of a polytechnic in Ghana representing the polytechnics on a rotational basis;• A representative of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research;• The Chairperson, National Board of Accreditation;• The Chairperson, National Teacher Training Council;• One representative of the Association of Ghana Industries;• One person with considerable experience of schools administration in Ghana;• A representative of the National Development Planning Commission;• A representative of the Minister of Finance;• A representative of the Minister of Education;• A representative of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences;• A representative of the Minister of Employment and Social Welfare; and• Four other persons, at least two of whom shall be women.

33 NCTE Act, section 3.


The appointing authority is the President acting in consultation with the Council of State.34 The Act does not prescribe comprehensive universal criteria for membership to the NCTE; neither is the procedure of appointment expressly spelt out. The Act does state, however, that in making the appointments, the President shall have regard to ‘the expertise and experience of the person and his ability to contribute to the work of the Council’.35 In the view of one interview respondent, government nominations should be expertise-based but often they are political: ‘One should expect that it should be based on expertise but in reality it’s who you know there.’36 Membership on the Council is invested in the post and not in the person; in other words, if the current chairperson of the NAB leaves her/his post as chairperson of the NAB, s/he effectively loses her/his membership on the Council.

All members, except the chairperson or ex officio members, may serve for a term of three years. These members may be re-appointed but not for more than two terms in succession.37 The chairperson’s term is four years, renewable, and with no limit on the number of terms for which the chairperson may be appointed.38 Members can be forced to resign if they fail to attend meetings for three quarters without giving their apologies, or if they do not declare their interest in relevant private companies or other investments.39

According to the Act, the NCTE may appoint committees composed of members or non-members, or both.40 These committees may perform any function of the NCTE or provide advice to the NCTE. At the time of writing, there were a number of permanent committees of Council, with specific terms of reference. These included the Finance Committee, the Academic Committee, the Infrastructure Committee, and the Entity Tender Committee, as well as an Editorial Board. Technical committees are constituted as and when necessary to advise on certain issues.

The NCTE is serviced by a Secretariat headed by the Executive Secretary, who works under the general supervision and direction of the Council, and who is responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of the affairs of the NCTE.41 In particular, the Executive Secretary is required to serve as secretary to the NCTE, attend all meetings of the NCTE and, in consultation with the Chairperson, arrange the business and keep record of all meetings of the NCTE.42 The Executive Secretary is appointed by the President acting in accordance with the advice of the Council given in

34 NCTE Act, section 3(3).

35 Ibid.: section 5(2).






41 Ibid.: section 11.

42 Ibid.: section 4.


consultation with the Public Services Commission.43 Senior Secretariat staff (with a minimum of a Masters degree) is appointed by the Council, while the junior staff is appointed by the Secretariat.44

At the time of writing, there were four directorates in the Secretariat including Corporate Affairs; Finance; Policy, Planning and Research; and Publications, Documentation and Public Relations. The newest of the directorates, established in 2011, is Policy, Planning and Research. Previously, there was only a post for a planning officer (now head of the planning department). His role was to collect and analyse data (what was available) and to give this to Council. Whether the Council took any note of these reports was not assured. According to one respondent, the establishment of the new directorate for Planning, Research and Policy Development was in response to an expanding sector in terms of numbers of new institutions (mostly private) and student enrolments.45 Initially, the NCTE only collected data on public TEIs but they now also collect data on private institutions.46 The responsibilities of the Policy, Planning and Research directorate included:47

• Preparing policy briefs to facilitate policy-making by Council;• Developing database and management information systems for effective planning, management

and development of TEIs;• Collecting and collating institutional data (e.g. on students, staff, academic norms, costs);• Producing annual statistical digests on all TEIs;• Analysing and determining the implications of data against norms and performance of TEIs for

informed advice by the NCTE to the TEIs and the Minister of Education;• Developing mechanisms for allocating funds allocated by the Ghana Education Trust Fund to

TEIs; and• Estimating the funding requirements of TEIs using benchmarks established in the national

standards and norms for tertiary education.

The functions of the Publications and Public Relations directorate included:48

• Coordinating activities in connection with the various publications of the NCTE, including editing, publishing and marketing;

• Developing and implementing the media strategy and identifying opportunities for proactive coverage of public activities undertaken by Council;

• Assisting in communicating policy and other relevant information to stakeholders and the general public through appropriate communication channels; and

• Managing the documentation centre of the NCTE.





47 NCTE website: http://ncte.edu.gh/ (accessed May 2013).

48 Ibid.


The NCTE Act prescribes minimal public accountability for the NCTE, probably because of the implicit higher level of upward/vertical responsibility of the NCTE to the Minister and the President. Section 16 of the Act says that the Minister for Education has ministerial responsibility for the NCTE. This means that the NCTE is primarily accountable to the Minister. Hence, the NCTE is obliged to submit an annual report to the Minister who must, in turn, submit it to Parliament within six months after the end of each financial year.49 The report is required to focus on the activities and operations of the NCTE during the preceding year. It must also include a copy of the audited accounts plus the Auditor-General’s report, and such other information as Parliament may request.50 An interview respondent also described how the NCTE can be called on an ad hoc basis to answer questions raised in Parliament: ‘We have had situations where [the NCTE Executive Secretary] and the NAB Executive Secretary were called to Parliament who said: ‘We are not happy with the number of private tertiary institutions; we don’t think you are doing your work; what is happening?’ And we had to explain.’51

Funding, human resources and physical infrastructure

According to section 13(1) of the NCTE Act, Parliament is obliged to provide the NCTE with such funds as it may require for the implementation of its functions. This section also allows the NCTE to receive funding from other sources provided that these are approved by the Minister responsible for finance. In practice, the NCTE receives 95% of its funding from the government, all of which goes towards the work of the Secretariat.52 The remaining 5% of its operational costs is covered by a contribution from TEIs, which comes via a service charge on institutional grants that are processed by the Council.53 The NCTE does not generate any additional funds through services. It has, however, received some funding from foreign donors (e.g. funding for staff development from the Netherlands University Foundation for International Cooperation through which the Head of Policy, Planning and Research completed his PhD).

Following its establishment in 1993, the NCTE’s first office was located on the premises of the MoE at the time (as was the NAB). The NCTE remained in the MoE until 1996, when it was relocated to a bungalow that had been converted into an office, in Roman Ridge in Accra.54 It was there that the idea to build an office for the NCTE – which had been mooted before – was revisited. Initially to house the NCTE only, the idea was later revised to incorporate the NAB and NABPTEX. The design and drawings were prepared and funding sought from the Ghana Education Trust Fund to construct




52 Mohadeb (2013: 6).

53 Ibid.

54 The first Executive Secretary of the NCTE explained that he had decided to make the move because he did not believe the original premises to be suitable in terms of the NCTE’s independence from the MoE (interview, May 2012).


the buildings, which were completed in 2010.55 The NCTE moved into the new premises (pictured on the cover of this report) in August 2010 and was followed by the NAB and NABPTEX.56

The NCTE’s human resources have grown over the years as the NCTE’s responsibilities increased while the sector expanded. Initially, it was not possible to expand the staff complement because there was not sufficient physical space to accommodate them, but this changed when the new building was acquired. At the time of the interviews (May 2012), there were about 45 staff members in the NCTE Secretariat. Many of these had been employed since 2011, when the new Executive Secretary recognised capacity problems: ‘I realised there were capacity problems, that we needed more hands. Now we have the hands, it is how to develop these hands. This is the next problem.’57 Capacity challenges facing the NCTE are discussed further in section 4.1 of this report.

55 Email correspondence (NCTE, April 2013).




Functions of the NCTEThe National Council for Tertiary Education Act spells out the following functions for the NCTE:58

1. To advise the Minister on the development of TEIs in Ghana;2. To enquire into the financial needs of the TEIs and advise the Minister accordingly;3. To recommend to the Minister for the purposes of the preparation of the annual national

education budget: – block allocations of funds towards running costs, and – grants towards capital expenditure of each institution of tertiary education, indicating how

the allocations are to be disbursed;4. To recommend national standards and norms, including standards and norms on staff, costs,

accommodation and time utilisation for the approval of the Minister, and to monitor the implementation of any approved national standards and norms by the institutions;

5. To advise governing councils of TEIs on suitable measures for generating additional funds for their institutions;

6. To advise TEIs on the applications for and acceptance of external assistance in accordance with government policy;

7. To advise the Minister generally on rates of remuneration and other conditions of service of staff of the institutions;

8. To publish information on tertiary education in Ghana; and9. To perform any other functions provided in this Act; and such other functions relating to tertiary

education as are incidental to the functions specified in this Act.

A brief perusal of the list above reveals that by far the majority of functions mandated by the Act boil down to advice – to either the Minister or to the institutions themselves. Other functions can be grouped under the financing of TEIs (an aspect of policy advice); the development and monitoring of norms and standards for the sector; and publishing information on tertiary education in Ghana. The nature and implementation of these functions are outlined in further detail below.

3.1 Policy advice

According to the Act, as highlighted above, the NCTE may advise the Minister on the following:

• Development of institutions of tertiary education in Ghana;• The financial needs of TEIs;• The annual national education budget; and • Rates of remuneration and other conditions of service of staff of TEIs.


3


The NCTE may advise TEIs on ‘suitable measures for generating additional funds for their institutions’ and on ‘the applications for and acceptance of external assistance in accordance with government policy’.59

In practice, according to interview respondents, the interaction between the Directorate for Tertiary Education in the MoE and the NCTE revolves primarily around consultation and advice.60 For the most part, the NCTE appears to advise the MoE reactively (i.e. in response to specific requests) but also at times proactively. In some cases, the MoE asks the NCTE to draft the section on tertiary education for one of their broader education policies, or to comment on a piece of draft legislation. According to a respondent, in the former case, key stakeholders (from vice-chancellors to student groups, depending on the context) are consulted or even involved in the drafting of the policy (e.g. in the form of a consultative committee).61 The Secretariat presents the draft policy to the Council which later presents it to the Minister and Parliament where it is ultimately approved or not. At the time of the interviews, the NCTE was involved in writing background documents to inform the development of a new tertiary education funding policy, out of which would be derived a new, more scientific funding formula.

The MoE also consults the NCTE on day-to-day problems as they crop up (e.g. issues around academic staff salaries) and, as one respondent highlighted, Parliament can call the NCTE to provide advice or answer questions on tertiary education-related issues through the Minister: ‘In terms of policy, the Minister can call us: Cabinet is holding a meeting; they have heard that this institution has done this and that institution has done that. Can you advise what has happened?’62

The NCTE’s advice to either the Minister or the TEIs does not have binding legal authority, nor does it carry strong recommendatory force. Decisions are made not by the NCTE, but by the Minister or the respective TEIs, who are not expected to give reasons for departing from the advice given. This was echoed by an interview respondent who reported: ‘[The Minister] doesn’t have to explain. We can send a memo to him on an issue and he can go on a platform and announce something different.’63 Nevertheless, there was a perception among some interview respondents that the NCTE’s advice carries quite a lot of influence.

One respondent emphasised the importance of providing quality, research-based advice to government:

I am saying this for all the regulatory bodies: that you can make yourself indispensable, if you improve the quality of the advice that you give. It is so important … In Ghana, if you want

59 Ibid.

60 Interviews (May 2012).





numbers of institutions, if you want any information on tertiary education, you will come [to the NCTE]. We do an analysis of the numbers, the trends and so on, and, based on that, we should be able to advise government. In that case, [the advice] cannot be wished away because it is based on empirical things that are happening.64

In principle, the NCTE’s advice is meant to be based on a combination of research and the experience of Council members but, owing to a lack of data and research expertise, it appears that advice is mostly based on experience (see section 3.5 for further discussion on this issue). Having said this, interview respondents from both the NCTE and the MoE spoke highly of the valuable collective experience that the Council members bring, as reflected in the two quotations below:65

[The NCTE] is where the real expertise lies. The Ministry, they are mainly administrators; except for the pre-tertiary [directorate] – they are people who have gone through the system as teachers, members of the Ghana Education Service, practised and risen to that level. The Director-General of Education was formerly a teacher. But, for the tertiary division [in the MoE] it’s different; it’s not somebody who has gone through the tertiary system. But, with the Council, you have practitioners, vice-chancellors, past vice-chancellors – people who know about higher education. They are on the Council and advise the Ministry.

If you take the Council, we have representatives – two vice-chancellors are represented; a polytechnic director is represented; you have the Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission. Then we have the Chief Director of the MoE; the Ministry of Economic Planning – a senior person, normally around the rank of director is represented; and somebody from secondary schools. So at least they know what is happening. The Council is represented by people who are educated and well-experienced.

3.2 Financial oversight

In the Act, the monitoring function also includes financial oversight of public TEIs. The Act requires all such institutions to submit, within two months of receipt, a copy of their audited accounts to the NCTE, which must in turn, within two months of receipt, submit the audited accounts to the Minister with comments.66 The NCTE calculates budget allocations to TEIs based on guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on which the agency bases its own allocation criteria. The approved budget usually falls short of the estimates provided by the Council and the lion’s share is allocated to salaries.67 According to an interview respondent, the NCTE does not have the power to apply any real sanctions, except by withholding funding in the next cycle; at most, the MoE






can call the Council and the head of the institution for a meeting to ‘draw attention [to the issue] and propose remedial sanctions’.68

The NCTE is also mandated to assist TEIs to secure additional funding.

According to interview respondents, one change in functions since the NCTE’s establishment came about with the establishment of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission in 2010 by the government. Prior to this, the NCTE was mandated to advise the Minister of Education on rates of remuneration and other conditions of service of staff in the TEIs. A joint negotiating team comprising members of the Council, together with the vice-chancellors and some other representatives from the universities, would negotiate with government regarding salaries and conditions. According to one respondent, initially the NCTE would participate in the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission meetings, but recently, the NCTE’s role has been minimised and they now tend to take on the role of conflict mediation.69 This is an interesting example of how a change in function was prompted by a change in the wider governance environment.

3.3 Determining and monitoring norms and standards

A key responsibility of the NCTE is to determine norms and standards for the sector in relation to infrastructural or operational requirements, and then to monitor whether TEIs meet these targets.70 The Act requires the NCTE ‘to recommend national standards and norms, including standards and norms on staff, costs, accommodation and time utilisation, for the approval of the Minister and to monitor the implementation of any approved national standards and norms by the institutions’.71

Although it sets the norms and standards for the sector, the NCTE only monitors their implementation on paper, that is, by analysing data. However, even this function is limited, given the NCTE’s challenges regarding data availability and capacity (see section 4.1). The NAB plays a much more direct role in actual monitoring via their accreditation process. At the time of the interviews, there did not seem to be much more to this monitoring role in terms of the NCTE or anyone else taking action where the data shows problems with institutions’ enrolment figures and success rates. Respondents made the following comments in this regard:72

[The NCTE] determines the norms and standards in the sector. The recommendations they make – the Minister is the one to approve, but it is this [Council] that formulates and recommends all standards and norms – teacher–student ratios, every norm. Key



70 Norms and standards relating to the accreditation of programmes or the quality of teaching and research are the responsibility of the NAB.

71 NCTE Act, section 2(1)(d).



performance indicators and so on are formulated here. We then give them to government and the Minister approves this. And then it is also their responsibility to police, to make sure these are implemented … If you like, the NAB is the technical wing. It is funded by this Council; it receives the norms and standards it uses from this Council, and then they go ahead and do the actual technical things. But they have a separate law and they have direct access to the Minister but the policy-making body is this one … in terms of norms and standards, in terms of funding; it is this Council that is the apex.

Perhaps that is the job of the NAB. We don’t go to schools and say: we are coming to monitor what you do. Accreditation conducts regular visits so we allow them to do the auditing. We monitor on paper … they bring in the data and we try to collect some of the data around some of the targets that we have. This is what we do but I have never visited any school to see a vice-chancellor … Well, I expect the Council, after looking at our data, to call the institution and to confirm the data with them. So they can say: the staff–student ratio is supposed to be [X] but yours is 1:30, then something is wrong … There are plans to have a tertiary education sector review where you bring in the vice-chancellors and discuss the data, their performance, with them.

As highlighted in section 3.2 of this report, the only sanction for non-compliant institutions is to reduce their funding in the next cycle. However, as one respondent explained, this is not a very effective instrument in the end, because institutions can generate and use their own internally generated funds. This is particularly the case with large, powerful institutions like the University of Ghana:

It’s true because you would say to [the TEIs]: do not go beyond a 10% growth rate. On one occasion, one university went to 31%. What would you do in a circumstance like this? What this Council can do is, using their formula, they will not fund you to the level that would meet that requirement. So that is the kind of sanction that they can put in terms of funding. Of course they can discuss with the Council; they can discuss with the authorities. But the difficult aspect is: much of the funding is generated by the institutions themselves through their own programmes, revenue-generation mechanisms and so on. Yours is principally for salaries, for personal emolument, so you have very little up your sleeve to sanction. If all the monies were here we could say: if you don’t do this we will not give you so much. But you can’t say who pays staff – you will be forced to pay staff and this is where the difficulty is – that they have to do some of the things you may not like. But it is difficult because [the TEIs] generally manage themselves.73

This talks to the issue of institutional autonomy, which most respondents spoke strongly about protecting. For instance, one respondent said that the NCTE’s monitoring role needs to be strengthened, but not at the expense of autonomy: ‘I think we should enhance [the monitoring



function]. We collect the data; we have to discuss it with them and advise them on it – without necessarily infringing on their autonomy.’74

3.4 Publishing information on tertiary education in Ghana

The promotion function is narrowly defined in the Act as consisting of the publication of information on tertiary education in Ghana.75 The NCTE website76 points to an impressive list of books, articles in the Tertiary Education Series, technical reports, and governance-related manuals. Many of these were authored or co-authored by the former NCTE Executive Secretary. A number were also outsourced to external, often local, experts. In some cases, people bring their research to the NCTE to be published.77

3.5 Roles in the governance of tertiary education in Ghana

For the purposes of the study, the governance of tertiary or higher education is taken to require the fulfilment, by one or a number of government and non-governmental bodies, of five primary roles, namely: 78 regulatory; distributive; monitoring; advisory; and coordination.

Regulatory, distributive and monitoring roles in higher education governance can be seen as part of the overall mechanisms for government steering of the sector. The functions associated with fulfilling each of these roles are highlighted in Table 2 on the next page.

As highlighted in section 2.2 of this report, the current NCTE was established on the back of earlier, similar organisational forms. The very first agency – the National Council for Higher Education established in 1962 – was modelled on the UK University Grants Committee as a funding agency. By the time the country’s current Constitution of 1992 called for the establishment of an NCTE, the tertiary education sector had grown quite considerably and so the focus of the new agency’s work covered tertiary, not only higher, education. In addition, the new NCTE retained a version of the funding agency role, but was also tasked with overseeing the overall development of tertiary education in Ghana.

As such, the NCTE’s primary role in the governance system is advisory, with advice being given either reactively or proactively to both the MoE and the TEIs. While the Minister is not obliged to take the advice of the NCTE, respondents reported that the NCTE generally carries quite a lot of influence in this regard. And, as pointed out by the MoE interview respondent, the Minister’s decision-making process


75 NCTE Act, section 2(1)(h).

76 NCTE website: http://ncte.edu.gh/index.php/publications/books-a-reports (accessed March 2013).


78 It should be noted that the conceptual framework used for this analysis is preliminary and has been developed largely on the basis of themes and information that have emerged during the study. The framework will be further elaborated and refined in subsequent outputs of this project.


is informed by a range of technical advice and input received, not only from the NCTE, but also from within the MoE itself and elsewhere. The NCTE’s advice is meant to be based on a combination of the collective experience of Council members, as well as research; however, as highlighted below, at the time of the interviews the NCTE was facing capacity challenges in this regard.

Table 2: Functions associated with different tertiary or higher education system ‘governance roles’

Regulatory • Determine norms and standards for the sector, the equivalence of qualifications between institutions, and credit accumulation and transfer policies and procedures.

• Determine the policies and procedures for institutional and programme accreditation.• Register, license and/or accredit new (and in some cases existing) public and/or

private TE/HE institutions.• Accredit new and/or existing academic programmes of public and/or private institutions.

Distributive • Determine budget allocations for TE/HE institutions and/or the sector as a whole.• Distribute financial resources from the state to institutions, units or individuals in the

sector.• Monitor expenditure at both institutional and sector levels.

Monitoring • Collect and analyse system and institutional-level data, including the development of performance indicators.

• Track developments and trends in the system, as well as performance and quality of institutions, against the norms and standards set for the sector or against stated national goals or system targets.

• Publish and disseminate TE/HE statistics, performance indicators, reviews, annual reports etc., and organise conferences with key stakeholders on the TE/HE system.

• Communicate identified problem areas to the Minister or institutions, where relevant.

Advisory • Provide expert and evidence-/research-based advice to policy-makers and other TE/HE leadership in government and institutions, either proactively or reactively in response to specific requests.

• Comment on or formulate draft policies on behalf of the ministry responsible for TE/HE.• Provide advice (in some cases as ‘recommendations’) to the relevant government body

on the licensing and accreditation of TE/HE institutions and the accreditation of their academic programmes.

Coordination • Enable interaction between key stakeholders and policy spheres.• Promote the objectives of TE/HE institutions or the sector to the market and within

government itself.• Develop and maintain agreement (a pact) between stakeholders about central TE/HE

objectives and issues.• Strategic and financial planning for TE/HE institutions and the sector.• Manage the relationships between key stakeholders (especially government and TE/HE

institutions).• Develop data and knowledge flows between different system-level governance roles.• An oversight function ensuring no duplication, confusion or gaps with regard to who is

doing what in the overall governance system.

The financial oversight activities of the NCTE can be seen as playing part of a distributive role in the sense that it coordinates the budgets and budget allocation process of TEIs. According to one respondent, the link between the advisory (policy) domain of the NCTE’s functions and being ‘in charge of allocating funds to various institutions’ makes the NCTE ‘very central in terms of higher education’.79



The NCTE plays regulatory, monitoring and evaluation roles, setting the norms and standards for the institutions and monitoring the implementation of these on paper. As noted earlier in this report, however, the real monitoring work is undertaken by the NAB via their various quality assurance activities.

The NCTE also plays a coordination role in the system. A key aspect of this is what respondents referred to as a ‘buffering role’ – primarily to protect TEIs from political interference by government. More than any other council or commission in the broader study, respondents interviewed at the NCTE emphasised the importance of protecting the autonomy of TEIs. This is perhaps particularly so with regard to funding, as one respondent described as follows:

[The NCTE] is the funding agency and so you will listen to the institutions about their needs, collate them, and go to government and argue on behalf of all the universities. Then, when the money is approved, you also come and allocate. So it’s a buffer in that regard between the tertiary institutions and government. The government goes to the tertiary institutions through this Council and [the institutions] go to government through this Council. But principally it is in charge of the budget of the tertiary sector. You prepare the budget having listened to all of them, and then the Executive Secretary will go to Parliament once a year on behalf of the entire tertiary sector to defend the budget for the sector … So we are here insulating the institutions against direct government control.80

The NCTE website, in describing the overall role of the agency, refers to it playing ‘an intermediary role between government and tertiary institutions and other stakeholders.’81 Respondents also gave examples of where the NCTE or its Executive Secretary were seen to be playing an intermediary role or as buffering the MoE from individual TEIs or academics:

The institutions do respect our mandate as the organ through which they approach government. In fact, all letters that the institutions write to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission are copied to us and, similarly, when Fair Wages writes to them, we get copies of those letters. So we may be silent but they do recognise that this body is there and when there is trouble, they come. Sometimes, Fair Wages is unable to understand certain things within an institution, and they come and ask us: ‘What do you think of this?’ One of the last things we did was the polytechnic lecturers saying to Fair Wages that they would want the minimum requirement for a lecturer in a polytechnic to be a PhD. And Fair Wages said: ‘We don’t understand this and what do you say?’ We gave our advice on that matter.82

Another aspect of the NCTE’s coordination role is its participation in a wide range of meetings and boards of key stakeholders in government and the private sector. This is a weaker form of


81 NCTE website: http://ncte.edu.gh/ (accessed March 2013).



coordination and is perhaps more, as one respondent referred to it, ‘representation’.83 Another respondent described the NCTE’s coordination role in a way that suggests that it is part of the NCTE’s advisory and policy development function – particularly, the involvement and participation of key stakeholders in the development of new policies. Finally, one respondent defined the NCTE’s coordination role in terms of general oversight of the sector.84

The sector kept expanding ... there were discussions regarding the colleges of education; even the public sector was expanding in terms of enrolments. Then they created new universities. After the creation of new universities, we have an expanded private sector. So, I went to my boss and I told him: ‘Please, let’s have a policy in this area.’ Because we have stakeholders and we always want to involve them, we normally coordinate – we provide the platform so we can bring all of them together and hold a general stakeholder meeting.

... coordination says we have to have a general policy on how we fund, how we monitor, how we bring stakeholders together, how we analyse stakeholder inputs, ensure that the system runs smoothly, that things are done properly, and there are bases for doing things and they are systematic. So that is the way I see coordination.




Key issuesBy way of concluding this report, we consider the issues relating to the NCTE’s ability to carry out its mandate that were explored and emerged during the study. These included the lack of research capacity within the organisation, access to accurate and relevant data from TEIs, and the agency’s autonomy and independence. These are discussed in brief below.

4.1 Lack of research capacity and difficulties in collecting data

As highlighted on page 15, the NCTE Secretariat staff complement has grown over the years as the organisation’s responsibilities have expanded. This is perhaps especially so with the expansion of the policy, planning and research activities of the NCTE, which saw a growth in human resource capacity from a single planning officer to a small department. As an interview respondent remarked: ‘We advise the Minister of Education on higher education, so there should be some sort of research-based analysis. The mandate was initially just one person collecting [data] ... and now we are six in number [in the Department].’85

Respondents said that the research capacity at the NCTE needed to be strengthened considerably, by upgrading staff qualifications and their research and data analysis skills. They regarded this as important in order for the advice function to be underpinned by empirical evidence and not based solely on opinion and experience (however valuable that might be). Lack of funds for research and research capacity development was also a problem. One respondent attributed the capacity problem, particularly amongst newly appointed staff, to the absence of a staff development plan for the organisation (which would include, for instance, upgrading staff qualifications to Masters or PhD degrees), as well as to the lack of funds for this purpose.86 Another suggested that there should be a dedicated budget for the research function at the NCTE and that research should be both internally and externally commissioned: ‘It should be a dedicated budget. We can’t do all things. Sometimes it is better to commission somebody to write it.’87 In the past, the NCTE had been able to commission a few research reports with money from the World Bank Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund and a respondent suggested that this should happen more frequently: ‘We commissioned some studies and those studies informed policy, informed the advice that we gave to government. I think that should be done periodically to strengthen the quality of the advice that goes to government.’88





4


Interview respondents also spoke about the challenges faced by the NCTE in collecting data from TEIs, particularly the private institutions, including the limited availability of data within the institutions themselves, and the variety of data formats (e.g. some institutions only have data in hard copy). At the time, they were trying to use the NAB to collect data from private institutions. Furthermore, the NCTE does not have any real leverage to get institutions to provide data and there is therefore a need for incentives and capacity development. According to one respondent, the proposed new funding formula will incentivise institutions to reach targets and maintain standards.89

4.2 Autonomy and independence

Issues relating to autonomy (legal) and independence (freedom from political interference) that emerged in the other countries in this study most often related to their regulatory (quality assurance) activities. An interview respondent drew a clear distinction between the NCTE and the NAB in terms of the powers relating to their primary roles (advisory and regulatory, respectively):

[The NAB] is established as a statutory independent body; that is the sort of distinction I wanted to draw with the others. You see, if you look at the NCTE Act carefully, they are to make recommendations to government for implementation. In our case we do not make recommendations; we decide and implement.90

It is perhaps not surprising then that there were no major complaints about attacks on autonomy or political interference in the work of the NCTE (although it must be acknowledged that this is something that respondents might be reluctant to talk about in an interview). Nevertheless, there are some aspects of how the NCTE is structured and operates that could potentially have an impact on its autonomy and independence. For instance, according to the Act, the NCTE does not enjoy full autonomy over the appointment of its staff. Both the Executive Secretary and other members of staff are appointed by the President ‘in accordance with the advice of the Council given in consultation with the Public Services Commission’.91 The President may of course, subject to the conditions s/he deems fit, delegate this power of appointment to the Council or a member of the Council.92

Interview respondents reflected different views on the NCTE and its independence. One, for instance, argued that the Act protects the NCTE from political interference. According to another, some stakeholders regard the NCTE as being too close to government (i.e. less independent), because the majority of their funding comes from government. While the independence of the NCTE from the parent ministry was regarded as important, one respondent argued that it is also important to maintain the delicate balance between independence and cooperation – even though this is



91 NCTE Act, sections 10(1) and 11(1).

92 Ibid.: sections 10(2) and 11(2).


sometimes a blurry line.93 Overall, the sense was that the NCTE is able to carry out its work with minimal political interference. Some of these views are reflected in the following quotations:94

The mandate we have, we are insulated in a way, because the NCTE is one of those bodies mentioned in the Constitution, for Article 71 bodies. Therefore, my appointment is an independent one. Strictly speaking, I am not under the Minister of Education; I am responsible to my Council and my appointment is not by the Minister of Education. So we are an agency that works closely with the Ministry but we are not really under them.

Sometimes the institutions see it that way. If there is a position of conflict and you are found (from their interpretation) not to be siding with them, then they think you are too close to government. I would say: ‘No, I am not a spokesman for government but I am just telling you where I sit, I have access to certain information that you may not have.’ Therefore, sometimes, such as when it comes to the matter of salary negotiations, I know what the government purse is. So when I am telling them to be realistic, then they will tend to see you [as biased]. But this aspect of complete dependence on government [for funding], yes, obviously takes a bit away from your autonomy, because if a situation of conflict really arises, and this happens with the universities too, universities are not completely independent as such; their salaries are all paid by government. So there is a limit and it really becomes tough. Government can say: ‘I have paid all your bills, so what are you talking about?’ But we haven’t reached there yet.

As has been suggested in other countries (e.g. South Africa), it appears that the extent to which the NCTE is free of political interference in carrying out its work depends, in part, on the style and approach of individual ministers, as well as the nature of the relationship (paternalistic, cooperative) between the NCTE and the MoE. An interview respondent articulated this view as follows:

It depends on the relationship; it depends upon who is in authority, who the minister is. Some of them would understand and give you the autonomy you require; but you will notice that everything that you require, you have to write to the minister, and it is the minister who writes to the appropriate agency – say, Minister of Finance if you want money, and the minister will forward your letter to government for money. If you go to Parliament: it is the minister who leads us to Parliament. But, some of them do understand that this body has been set up as a quasi-independent body to have broad general oversight of tertiary education … Some of them understood and would only call you if you required their help or their support. But others would want to come in if there is something, they will phone you: ‘What is happening? Can we do this and can we do that?’ Then you advise them: ‘No, there is a Council in place; would you allow the Council to go through the processes, and so on?’ So I would say it depends upon the personality, who is the minister at the time.95





List of sourcesReports, articles and legislation

Bailey T (2014) Higher Education Councils and Commissions in Africa: A Comparative Study of their Roles and Functions in Eight Countries. Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation

Chirwa D (2014) Higher Education Councils and Commissions in Africa: A Comparative Study of the Legal Basis of their Establishment, Functions, Autonomy and Accountability. Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation

Cloete N, Bailey T, Pillay P, Bunting I and Maassen P (2011) Universities and Economic Development in Africa. Cape Town: CHET

Government of Ghana (2003) Education Strategic Plan 2003 to 2015: Volume 1: Policies, Targets and Strategies. Ministry of Education, May 2003

Government of Ghana (2010) National Council for Tertiary Education: Strategic Plan 2010–2014. Accra: National Council for Tertiary Education

Mohadeb P (2013) Higher Education Councils and Commissions in Africa: Financing and Funding Models. Cape Town: Centre for Higher Education Transformation

National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) Act No. 454 of 1993

NCTE (2011) Annual Report 2009. Accra: National Council for Tertiary Education

World Economic Forum (2012) The Global Competitiveness Report 2012–2013. Geneva: World Economic Forum

Interview/email respondents and feedback on draft case study report

Donnan K Tay (Director: Tertiary Education, MoE)

Emmanuel Newman (Head: Planning, Research and Policy Development Department, NCTE)

Jerry Sarfo (Assistant to the Executive Secretary, NCTE)

Kwame Dattey (Executive Secretary, NAB)

Mahama Duwiejua (Executive Secretary, NCTE)

Paul Effah (Former Executive Secretary, NCTE; Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration)

Richard Adjei (Head: Accreditation Department, NAB)

Documents

THE ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION COUNCILS …chet.org.za/files/Ghana ROLE AND FUNCTIONS OF HE... · Functions of the NCTE 16 ... The Higher Education Councils and Commissions