Public Universities Bill is “unconstitutional and unnecessary”- UTAG TO Gov’t

The Public University Bill has been chided once again, and this time round, the University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has called on government to withdraw the bill.

According to the university lecturers, the bill when passed into law will do more harm to education in the country and outlook of universities than good.

In a statement issued by the Association on Wednesday, September 16, 2020, the group stated that, claims by President Akufo-Addo and also the rationale behind the bill isn’t credible.

“In sum, our objections are that the PUB is unconstitutional, unnecessary, and will create more problems than it claims to solve,” the statement said.

The bill when implemented will give the Executive majority representation on the University Council, permitting “the President to dissolve the Council” and “effectively control universities”.

 “The new law would thus erode the protections that the Constitution grants universities in order that they can effectively carry out their mandate of teaching, learning, and research; academics would become beholden to the political party in power, either as a result of direct interference or through self-censorship, and would cease to be the source to which the media and public can turn for impartial analysis of government policies”.

In buttressing their claim of the the bill being “unnecessary”, the association further noted that public universities are currently accountable to all three arms of the government “through a large number of laws and institutions”.

The inclinations of the bill according to the Association actually “seeks to attain by legal meddlesomeness what can already be achieved by enforcing existing laws and laid down administrative procedures, and by ensuring that the regulatory institutions do their job”.

In an interview on the 4th of September 2020 on Oman FM, the President conceded that “valid criticisms” had been brought against the Public University Bill and had iterated that these would be reviewed.

However, the President ultimately concluded that “the basic thrust of the Bill and the rationale for it is incontestable”.

Based on this, UG-UTAG are contesting “the very basis of the Bill and calling for it to be completely withdrawn”.

Although in the interview on Oman FM the President did concede that the issue of University Councils required a second look, the Association believes “he did not indicate whether these clauses would be totally removed or merely tweaked. In any case, there are many more problems with the Bill that makes it untenable”.

The Association as a matter of principle called on government to rather focus on investigating any “cases of wrongdoing”, as “it behooves the state to proceed with investigations and, if necessary, bring charges to bear”.

The bill, according to government is ostensibly for the purpose of harmonizing the laws that regulate public universities but members of UTAG have held that the bill is disguised to expand the frontiers of executive power.