The president of the Technical University Teachers’ Association of Ghana, Professor Michael Brigandi, has asserted that, the composition of council by government on the public university bill will put government in an autonomous position.

According to him, it is of grave concern for stakeholders as government will be predisposed to take decisions on their own without consulting primary stakeholders of the universities.

“It’s a major concern, because looking at the proposed composition, government is going to end up hijacking our council. It appears government will have majority on council and can conveniently convene a meeting of council and take decisions on behalf of the entire university”.

Although he is yet to see the revised version of the bill, Prof. Brigandi indicated that, if comments by other stakeholders are anything to go by, he strongly believes “there is very little difference” made to the bill.

He further lamented the sparse representation of technical universities in the bill, a situation he reckons to be an afterthought.

“Our major concern has to do with the composition of council and the other glaring issue is the way the technical universities have been captured in the bill; as if they have forgotten about technical universities and at the last minute they remembered that we have technical universities also in this country. So, they just listed them”.

Parliament on Wednesday December 16, 2020, suspended the Public University Bill at the consideration stage to allow for further stakeholder engagements.

According to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, the Bill will not have been passed without the input of various stakeholders.

Addressing the Press, the Chairperson of the Education Committee in Parliament, William Quaittoo Agyapong, said: “The consideration at the plenary is suspended. That is on hold until we receive their [UTAG’s] inputs on the new Bill”.

Giving his take on whether he held the view on the complete withdrawal of the bill, Prof. Brigandi responded “not exactly” as he opines there are few good aspect of the bill.

“Just as others did, we submitted our position to government when we met the parliamentary select committee regarding the concerns of UTAG. When we met the committee, they promised they were going to get back to us, so we were expecting to see a revised version of it…we are of the view that, indeed there are a few good things in it, but then if our comments are not taken on board, it will be very difficult for us to accept it”.

Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei- Atua, a representative of the University Teachers Association of Ghana on his part, called for the complete withdrawal of the Public Universities Bill.

“I think it’s a huge relief for stakeholders because it indicates that the government wants to now go by the rules and the relationship arrangement that it set up with the stakeholders, which is also influenced by the office of the UN special rapporteurs on right to education and right to freedom of expression.

“So, we think that the roadmap should now be set for an engagement to really assess the nitty-gritty elements of the bill and where we have disagreements, so that we will be able to come to a clear understanding; even though we want to emphasize that for the University of Ghana our position is that the bill should be completely withdrawn”.