The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), University of Cape Coast (UCC) Branch, has called for the immediate resignation or removal of the Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), citing alleged regulatory overreach, arbitrariness, and threats to university autonomy.
In a statement released on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, UTAG-UCC described the actions of Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai and Prof. Augustine Ocloo as destabilising to public universities and undermining due process.
The association argued that GTEC’s interventions in 2025, including directives on retirement, suspension of accreditation processes, and conditional restoration of services, have created uncertainty and curtailed lawful academic governance.
UTAG-UCC warned that academic freedom is being eroded subtly through administrative pressure and coercive regulation, rather than direct intervention.
The association highlighted several cases, including the treatment of UCC as “non-existent” on GTEC’s portal, the withdrawal of accreditation for certain postgraduate programmes, and rigid enforcement of retirement timelines that disrupted teaching and research.
The branch further criticised provisions of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), saying they provide legal space for overreach. UTAG-UCC has demanded urgent legislative amendments to sections relating to access to information, criminalisation of non-compliance, regulatory frameworks, and enforcement structures to ensure public universities maintain autonomy and fair administrative processes.
UTAG-UCC also called on the government to issue a robust Legislative Instrument and a Ministerial Policy Directive clarifying GTEC’s role as a regulator, not a parallel governing authority over public universities.
While the association stressed that it remains open to dialogue, it warned that it may resort to lawful industrial action to defend university autonomy, academic freedom, staff welfare, and the stability of Ghana’s tertiary education system if its demands are not met.
The statement emphasized that the call for removal of GTEC leadership is not personal but rooted in legality, institutional integrity, and the survival of Ghana’s public tertiary education system. UTAG-UCC urged all branches across the country, as well as university governing councils and vice-chancellors, to unite in defending academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
