Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh
GHANA’S NEW Tertiary Education Policy (TEP) is mandating all institutions of higher learning in the country to track their students’ performance on the job market after graduation.
Per the policy, universities, polytechnics and technical universities are required to
“conduct tracer studies of their graduates every three years and shall report same to the regulator.”
According to the 80-pages policy document, “tertiary education institutions shall have appropriate information management systems to capture progression and attrition rates for each course, programme and
institution as whole and report same annually to the regulator.”
It says “the regulator shall design and implement a tertiary education management information system for easy and reliable retrieval and analysis of data to inform policy.”
Preparation of the new educational policy began in February 2017 and received Cabinet approval on May 9, 2019.
A draft public university bill is being prepared to support the policy.
This came to light at a forum on tertiary education reforms held on Friday, June 14, 2019, in Accra.
The forum was to sensitize and create awareness about the Tertiary Education Policy and the legislative and institutional reform implications of the Policy.
Policy Structures
The Policy comes under five structures namely: Governance and Management, Equity and Access, Quality and Relevance, Financing, Crosscutting issues.
BY Melvin Tarlue