Private legal practitioner Oliver Barker-Vormawor has criticised the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) over its recent contentious actions in determining who holds a professorial title.
The lawyer noted that GTEC lacks the authority to pass judgment on professorial titles, particularly when those titles are conferred by universities outside Ghana. In an opinion piece, Barker-Vormawor pointed out that the law establishing GTEC mandates it to “…regulate tertiary institutions, monitor academic standards, and verify certificates and degrees when formally requested”.
He was responding to a letter issued by GTEC asking Deputy Health Minister Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah to cease referring to herself as a professor, or face legal action.
In response, the lawyer advised her to take legal action against them.
Read his full opinion piece below
Let’s Talk GTEC.
1. Over these past few days, GTEC has been in the news for the most strange reasons
2. The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission is supposed to be the guardian of academic quality and standards in this country. Instead, it has become the subject of controversy for claiming the power to decide who can or cannot use the title “Professor.”
3. This is deeply problematic. GTEC’s mandate under the Education Regulatory Bodies Act is straightforward: regulate tertiary institutions, monitor academic standards, and verify certificates and degrees when formally requested.
4. Nowhere does the law empower it to sit in judgment on professorial titles, especially when those titles are conferred by universities outside Ghana. And for good reason. This is why…
5. At the heart of this debate is a very simple truth: there is no single international system for comparing professorships. In the United States, both tenure-track and non-tenure-track appointments are addressed as “Professor.” In the UK, “Professor” is reserved for the most senior appointments. In France or South Africa, the terminology differs again. These are local traditions, not global rules. To suggest that GTEC can apply a universal test is not just wrong, it misinforms the public.
5. It is one thing to have never been appointed a professor at all. But it is entirely different, and dangerous, for a regulator to pretend that an international standard exists when it does not. Even within the same country, the distinction between tenure-track and non-tenure-track has nothing to do with whether a person is addressed as “Professor.” GTEC’s claim to the contrary is uninformed.
6. This is not the first time GTEC’s methods have been called into question. In fact, the Commission is already caught up in a defamation case involving Professor Edward Dua Agyeman. Under cross-examination in court, GTEC officials struggled to show that they had carried out even the most basic verification before casting doubt on his credentials. That case has already begun to expose how shaky the Commission’s practices are when tested against the law.
7. More recently, instead of acting on a formal complaint from an institution, GTEC appears to just react to social media chatter, rushes to issue official letters, and put those letters in the media. If this is not regulatory fanfooling. ????????♂️ And it undermines confidence in the Commission’s impartiality.
8. GTEC’s work is vital to Ghana’s academic system. If it loses credibility, the entire framework of tertiary education oversight suffers. Students, parents, institutions, and employers must be able to trust that when the Commission speaks, it speaks with authority, grounded in law and evidence, not in gossip or political calculation.
9. Ghana deserves a regulator that acts with rigour, transparency, and fairness. If GTEC continues to stretch its mandate, operate without clear standards, and chase headlines instead of doing its job, it will damage not only its own reputation but also the very system it was created to protect.
10. I challenge anyone to find any guidelines, regulations or standards that GTEC claims to be applying here.
11. If I was Prof. Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, i would sue them. In fact, I will gladly be her lawyer.
12. I detest academic dishonesty. You can’t claim to be checking academic dishonesty, while being neck deep in one. To pretend there is a universal standard for professorships, and to pass off that pretence as official regulation, is academic dishonesty of the highest order.
Salaam!
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
