Management of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has hit back at claims in the Auditor General’s report that only 61 of the 360 courses at the University are accredited.
According to the University, those courses have been running at the University for decades and have been duly sent to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) for re-accreditation but it is the agency which is dragging its feet in re-accrediting them.
KNUST added in a statement that once an institution submits a course for re-accreditation, the institution is deemed to have complied with the law.
“We have submitted over 468 applications for existing programs, so when the documents are with GTEC, and they haven’t been worked on, there is a little delay. That is not to say, the university is running unaccredited programs. KNUST existed long ago before the setting up of the National Accreditation Board and GTEC so most of these programs we are talking about have been running for over 70 years. So how can one say that, these programs that have trained some of the finest brains in this country are unaccredited?” KNUST Public Relations Officer, Dr. Daniel Norris Bekoe said.
“Accreditations for all those were duly secured before the commencement. Re-accreditation is a continuous process, and they are done as and when the certificates are about expiring. We have submitted documents to GTEC long ago for re-accreditation. Once an institution submits application for re-accreditation, that institution is deemed to have complied. We await speedy assessment of these applications by GTEC and issuance of the relevant documents.
“The Auditor General asking the universities to stop running those programmes when re- accreditation applications are lying on the desks of GTEC is to say KNUST and UG should throw the over 160 thousand students on the streets. It doesn’t work that way!” he added.
The institution also took aim at the media over what it described as inaccurate reportage over the report.
“I urge the Ghanaians media to always respect the objectivity code and stop peddling false hood in the name of “ Breaking News”, Dr Bekoe continued.
The Auditor-General’s report for 2021 disclosed that some academic programmes offered by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have not been accredited.
The report dated June 1, 2022, and addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin revealed that: “out of the 360 programmes run by the University, only 61 have been accredited, 190 sent to National Accreditation Board (NAB) for accreditation and reaccreditation with 109 yet to be sent to NAB for accreditation.”
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
