Halt implementation of directive on office holding allawa or we strike – GAUA to GTEC

Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) has bemoaned what it describes as the near death of academic freedom in public universities across the country.

A meeting held by all Non-Teaching Senior Members in public universities in Ghana hammered on the recent apparent political interference with universities’ governance as well as management issues of most public universities.

According to the association, some government appointees to the university councils, and politicians in the jurisdiction of some public universities have been noted to exert excessive political influence on the administrative structures of the public universities without recourse to the Acts, Statutes and Policies governing the Ghanaian universities.

The association noted that: “These gravely worrying behaviours of the Regulator in dishonouring statutory provisions of legally binding documents is most distasteful and an affront to the academic freedom of these autonomous public institutions.”

It stressed that: “This trend is very wrong and needs emergent redress if the rule of law is anything to continue to live for.”

The association called on government and the stakeholders to “uphold the sanctity of academic freedom by enforcing the compliance with legal documents of the nation’s public universities.”

It further called on GTEC “to halt the implementation of its directives of Office Holding Allowances in the public universities forthwith, as the process is awash with discrimination, arbitrariness, and unfair labour practices.”

The association asserts the implementation of the directive has resulted in a number of its members losing their allowances hence wants the implementation halted if not it would lay down its tools.

“Notice is hereby served that if the GTEC directive is not stopped by 1 st January 2024, GAUA and its members will be compelled to lay down their tools,” the statement added.