Rethinking Higher Education Governance in Ghana This is a research report of the CODESRIA: Higher Education Leadership Programme (HELP) Launched in 2011, with funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the HELP program sought to support research networks, policy forums and publications to document and provide an understanding of transformations underway with regard to the governance and leadership of higher education institutions in Africa. In initiating the program, CODESRIA was motivated by the desire to contribute to the knowledge base and initiate policy debates that would deepen the reforms, as leadership and governance are central to ensuring the quality and relevance of higher education in the continent. CODESRIA Working Paper Series The CODESRIA Working Paper Series disseminates outputs from CODESRIA’s research activities. Working papers constitute work in progress. They provide insights into the breadth and depth of work undertaken by the Council’s various programmes and research networks. These are published to stimulate discussion and contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Rethinking Higher Education Governance in Ghana Reflections of a Professional Administrator Paul Effah Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa DAKAR © CODESRIA 2018 Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop, Angle Canal IV BP 3304 Dakar, 18524, Senegal Website: www.codesria.org ISBN: 978-2-86978-786-5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from CODESRIA. Typesetting: Alpha Ousmane Dia Cover Design: CODESRIA Distributed in Africa by CODESRIA Distributed elsewhere by African Books Collective, Oxford, UK Website: www.africanbookscollective.com The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is an independent organisation whose principal objectives are to facilitate research, promote research-based publishing and create multiple forums geared towards the exchange of views and information among African researchers. All these are aimed at reducing the fragmentation of research in the continent through the creation of thematic research networks that cut across linguistic and regional boundaries. CODESRIA publishes Africa Development, the longest standing Africa based social science journal; Afrika Zamani, a journal of history; the African Sociological Review; the African Journal of International Affairs; Africa Review of Books and the Journal of Higher Education in Africa. The Council also co-publishes the Africa Media Review; Identity, Culture and Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue; The African Anthropologist, Journal of African Tranformation, Method(e) s: African Review of Social Sciences Methodology, and the Afro-Arab Selections for Social Sciences. The results of its research and other activities are also disseminated through its Working Paper Series, Green Book Series, Monograph Series, Book Series, Policy Briefs and the CODESRIA Bulletin. Select CODESRIA publications are also accessible online at www.codesria.org. CODESRIA would like to express its gratitude to the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Open Society Foundations (OSFs), UN Women, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), Oumou Dilly Foundation and the Government of Senegal for supporting its research, training and publication programmes. Contents Preface...........................................................................................................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................................................................................ix Abbreviations...........................................................................................................................................................................................xi About the Author..............................................................................................................................................................................xiii Chapter 1: Overview of Tertiary Education in Ghana..........................................................................1 Chapter 2: Childhood, Early Life and the Choice of a Career............................................13 Chapter 3: A University in the Midst of Turbulence....................................................................31 Chapter 4: A Founding Registrar of a New University.................................................................41 Chapter 5: Executive Secretary to Reposition NCTE...................................................................61 Chapter 6: Governance and Leadership Training..............................................................................77 Chapter 7: A Stint as an Academic.......................................................................................................................91 Chapter 8: National Assignments, Consultancies and Scholarly Works................101 References................................................................................................................................................................................................115 Preface Higher education is an academic business. Its core purpose is to undertake research, teach and provide service to the community. It is for this reason that academic staff or faculty and students are in the frontline of the academic business. If this was true in the past when funding was secure and reliable, the same cannot be said of today. World over, public funding of higher education is dwindling. Student numbers are increasing exponentially while collaboration between the university and industry, which was tangential to academic work, is no longer an option but an integral part of the university’s work. The purely self-governing and collegial model of governance imposed by the British model and adopted by universities in most Anglophone Africa is gradually giving way to corporate managerialism, a characteristic of the United States governance system. Under the circumstances, governance and management of higher education institutions have become increasingly more complex than ever before. Leadership and management of universities and other higher education institutions, which were combined in the university Professor or teacher, have had to be decoupled from academic work. There is now a requirement for professional training other than merely learning on-the-job or through trial and error and the experience that comes with progressing through the academic hierarchy. Thus, academic leadership and management were acquainted as one progressed from headship of department, through deanship/directorship to positions such as Pro- Vice-Chancellorship and Vice-Chancellorship. The situation has changed, requiring professional services and competence to complement the effort of academic leadership. Managing students, human resources, space, examinations and, indeed, the academic enterprise, has become a professional business and can no longer be left to amateurs or be provided as an adjunct to the academic business as happened in the past. Giving the student members involved, admissions for example, can no longer be handled manually as done in the past but have to be automated using appropriate information viii Higher Education Leadership Programme (HELP) technology software. It was for considerations such as these that led Clark Kerr to envision the university as a multi-versity, a community of scholars and non- academic staff each complementing the other. It was for the same reason that Henry Wasser refers to the university of the knowledge driven 21st century as “University of Calculation” describing it as a convenient assembly of talents. The implication is that no university can become great without the combined effort of both the academic and non-academic professionals working together towards the academic goal. In this book, I begin a journey from childhood to adulthood using the opportunity to rethink the higher education system in Ghana. These reflections are structured into eight chapters. Chapter One, the introduction, gives an overview of higher education in Ghana, tracing the development of higher from Achimota College in the late 1920’s to the current period. Chapter Two, childhood, early life and choice of a career gives an account of how the author progressed through childhood to the position of university administrator. Chapter Three talks about the University. As the title A University in the midst of Turbulence indicates, the University of Cape Coast has experienced some challenges in the past. The chapter discusses the challenges and how they were addressed. The chapter ends with a discussion of how the university was returned to normalcy and the role played by subsequent university administrations. Chapter Four recounts the role played by the author as the founding Registrar of the University for Development Studies, Tamale. In Chapter Five the author outlines efforts towards repositioning the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to its preeminent position in the higher