The University Teachers’ Association of Ghana, University of Ghana branch (UTAG-UG), has called for the immediate resignation of the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, and his Deputy, Prof. Augustine Ocloo, accusing them of gross administrative overreach and failure to uphold the commission’s statutory mandate.
In a press statement dated 19 January 2026, UTAG-UG said the leadership of GTEC has consistently acted contrary to the objectives of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), resulting in what it described as declining standards and governance challenges across Ghana’s public tertiary education institutions.
According to the association, GTEC’s core responsibilities include ensuring quality standards in teaching and research, promoting equitable access to tertiary education, strengthening transparent governance, and safeguarding accountability. However, UTAG-UG argued that the commission has “veered off these mandates” and instead focused on what it termed tangential and sometimes frivolous activities, while ignoring critical systemic challenges such as inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, high lecturer workloads, and declining staff welfare .
UTAG-UG questioned GTEC’s silence on fundamental benchmarks such as student-to-teacher ratios, infrastructure standards, and enforcement mechanisms, describing the commission’s approach as detached from the realities confronting public universities.
The statement also accused GTEC of undermining institutional autonomy and governance structures. UTAG-UG cited the removal of the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, and asked under which specific provision of Act 1023 GTEC exercised such authority .
Further criticism was directed at what UTAG-UG described as confusion between GTEC’s advisory and regulatory roles. The association claimed that governing councils of public universities have been rendered ineffective, while vice-chancellors have been sidelined, with GTEC allegedly reversing council decisions without clear legal justification.
A major point of contention is GTEC’s directive requiring lecturers to retire immediately upon attaining the age of 60, rather than at the end of the academic year as has been the long-standing practice. UTAG-UG argued that the policy risks disrupting teaching, supervision, and academic continuity, especially when retirements occur mid-semester. The association also questioned GTEC’s authority to demand submissions for post-retirement contracts, describing the move as unconstitutional micromanagement.
UTAG-UG stressed that post-retirement contracts are negotiated conditions of service approved by government and cabinet, and not privileges that can be altered unilaterally by GTEC or its leadership.
The association further accused the GTEC leadership of adopting an adversarial engagement style with university managers, frequently issuing threats of regulatory sanctions, which it said has negatively affected staff morale across public tertiary institutions.
As an example, UTAG-UG cited a 2025 incident in which GTEC allegedly threatened sanctions against the University of Ghana over a reported 25 percent fee increase, which later turned out to be false. According to UTAG-UG, the situation could have been resolved through basic verification rather than public threats .
“These recurring mishaps are not accidental,” the statement said, describing them as part of a pattern of incompetent administration that threatens academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the long-term stability of Ghana’s tertiary education system.
UTAG-UG said repeated engagements with GTEC leadership to address these concerns have yielded little progress.
The association has given Prof. Jinapor Abdulai and Prof. Ocloo until January 31, 2026, to resign voluntarily. Failure to do so, UTAG-UG warned, will trigger a petition to the Chief of Staff seeking their removal and could result in industrial action.
In addition, UTAG-UG called for the immediate passage of a Legislative Instrument to guide the implementation of Act 1023, which it believes would prevent future abuse of power by the leadership of GTEC.
The association also urged other UTAG branches and allied institutions to join what it described as a collective fight to “restore sanity and hope” in Ghana’s public tertiary education system
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