Don’t wean off Universities from payroll - Prof. K. T Oduro tells government

A Former Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. George K.T Oduro has added his voice to calls for the government to rethink its plans of weaning off public tertiary institutions from its payroll.

He notes that implementing this proposal would have dire consequences on the nation’s ability to provide access to higher education and hence, government must reconsider its decision to no longer fund public universities.

Prof. Oduro was speaking at the University of Cape Coast’s 6th University Teachers’ Association of Ghana (UTAG) Expert Forum.

To him “if government weans itself off funding, one of the clear impacts that will have on access is that it will lead to unpreferred program. The person applying for a particular program but the university will offer the person a different program based on a combination or other things.

"It will affect the university’s internally generated funds aided investments in infrastructure. If there is weaning off, it will mean that the university will have to rethink how the money will be used.”

The forum themed "Weaning off public universities from government of Ghana payroll: implications for tertiary education landscape". It sought to bring various stakeholders together to discuss concerns of financing tertiary education in Ghana.

Speaking on the topic "Accessibility impact Assessment", Prof Oduro indicated that taking public universities off government payroll would raise the cost of accessing education as well as pose financial barriers to the poor to access tertiary education in the country.

To that end, he stressed the need for government to review and adopt a more realistic approach in lieu of weaning off public universities from its payroll.

“Instead of government weaning universities from the payroll, money could be saved to sustain government payroll responsibilities towards teaching and non-teaching staff if it reviews and adopt a more realistic targeted and poor people-focused approach” he continued.

In his presentation on the topic: Alternatives policy and lessons from peer institutions globally, Director-General of the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration in UCC, Dr. Michael Boakye- Yiadom stressed that public universities must enhance their revenue generation efforts before considering gradually weaning off from government’s payroll.

He intimated that “sending letters alone various offices and companies will never do the trick. My point is that we must grow and harvest what we have grown. So again, the funding gap that we have in public universities in Ghana is real and we have to find ways to do that.”

He also believes another way universities can improve their income generation is by enhancing their alumni relations to encourage them to give back to their alma matters.

“Again, what if faculty members at different departments in the public universities decide that for the passion for educational leadership, they are going to contribute 5% of their responsibility allowance into a fund to support activities in their respective departments? And that is how we gradually begin to grow endowment at the departmental level, we scale it up to faculty and school, then to the colleges and finally, the university of cape coast endowment fund will be huge” he added.

While reiterating that weaning off would have dire implications on students, staff as well as national and infrastructural development, Former Dean of the Faculty of Law at UCC, Prof. Philip Ebo Bondzi- Simpson stressed the need for adequate preparations and advocated for the development of a roadmap prior to considering weaning off public universities from government payroll.

“If public universities are to be weaned off the payroll, what are the processes and procedures in place? What are the action points, and what are the timelines. Unless and until a roadmap is put in place that we can all see and interrogate, no one can say we are prepared.”

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