The government has been urged to make further consultation on the Public Universities Bill (PUB), 2020 after the bill went through a second reading in Parliament on Tuesday amid protest from some stakeholders, including the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).
The new legislation, which was withdrawn in October and re-laid in the House on November 3, 2020, is intended to ensure that the governance frameworks in respect of appointment of the governing council, membership of the council, chancellor and council chairperson among others are consistent across the board.
Plans to harmonize the different legislations and institutional structures to define the operations of public universities in the country have already been announced by the government in the bill, but it appears the government is heading into another standoff with the minority group in Parliament.
NDC Minority
Leader of the Minority, Haruna Iddrisu, said his side could not support to the bill in its current form, saying “stakeholder consultation is important to the work we do as Parliament.”
“That is why Article 106 requires that we invite public memoranda,” he stated and added that the UTAG branch of the University of Ghana had indicated that its association had not been engaged.
Mr. Iddrisu said “these are stakeholders who are affected by the bill and therefore need an assurance from the Minister of Education that they would be thoroughly engaged, and the report of engagement submitted to Parliament. Either than that we are unable to support this bill.”
According to him, the NDC MPs want the legitimate concerns of university lecturers and students in the governance of public universities to be appropriately addressed in the bill before it could be passed to law.
Minister’s Response
However, the Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, dismissed assertions that stakeholders of the country’s public universities had not been consulted, noting that “there are 26 public universities which are going to be affected by this bill and there has been a thorough consultation.”
“Mr. Speaker, if you read the request they (UTAG-UG) brought, they are looking for information. They never said they had not been consulted. In fact, what caused the relaying was the enormity of proposals the universities brought, which the committee (on education) engaged them and decided that due to the voluminous nature, they were going to incorporate into the original bill and come and withdraw and relay it.”
According to him, the current issue is not about consultation, and said the Committee on Education received 38 memoranda on the bill after its advertisement that called for papers.
The minister told Parliament that those people were invited to appear before the Education Committee to testify, and stated that “the government had nothing to hide in this bill.”
But despite the explanation from the government, criticism from a number of minority MPs and the UTAG members about the power the bill gives to the government to appoint members of the governing council, chancellors and council chairpersons for the universities has continued.
National President of UTAG, Prof. Charles Ofosu Marfo, said members of the association were still waiting to receive the current status of the bill after meeting the parliamentary committee on education.
“As it is, we do not know what they are debating about; we also do not know which bill Parliament is deliberating on. Until we are provided with the document, we will spend every life in us to keep academic freedom,” he said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House