Government to make private university charters optional
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has said he will submit a Cabinet memorandum to amend the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 1023 of 2020 and to make chartering optional for private universities in the country.
He said there was a need to recognise the role played by private tertiary institutions in completing the work of government in the delivery of education.
"I will get a Cabinet memo or, probably, given the exigency of time, an executive approval from President John Dramani Mahama to amend Act 1023 of 2020 and to make chartering optional.
"Even though I earlier pronounced that we'll give a moratorium of 10 years based on the Ansa-Asare Committee report and its recommendation, we need to recognise what private universities have done in complementing the government in expanding access to higher education," Mr Iddrisu said.
He said this on the sidelines of a stakeholder engagement on the Kwaku Ansa-Asare Committee Report on Presidential Charter for private universities, in Accra last Wednesday.
The committee was constituted on April 24, 2025 to, among other things, examine the five-year compulsory charter implementation journey, assess international best practices and advise the Minister of Education on ways of improving implementation of the charter policy.
It submitted its report to the minister on July 20, 2025, and the meeting was to do a critical evaluation of the findings of the report and make appropriate recommendations to the sector minister.
The meeting was attended by representatives of private universities.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Iddrisu lauded the institutions as government partners in the provision of higher education in Ghana.
Relationship
“I do not and I would not ever take the relationship with you for granted. Look at the number of persons you employ and look at the number of students that are under your guidance and tutelage.
“We appreciate that. We are here today on a stakeholder engagement about the charter policy, which was enshrined in the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020, Act 1023,” he said.
He said the meeting was critical and the engagement quite significant, particularly in the area of providing quality tertiary education in the country.
“What government will continue to do will be to strengthen oversight and particular quality assurance using the regulatory body of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). We recognise the critical role accreditation and charter play in ensuring the quality of research, teaching and outreach functions of our investors,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu said the meeting would guide him to take urgent action and decisions on the future of private provision of higher education in the country.
Approach
“My strategy was to look at one of two approaches. One was to extend and give a moratorium of 10 years within the policy space, because I understand that out of 94 private universities in the country, only 24 have been able to charter under the provisions of the Education Regulatory Act 1023, which makes charter mandatory.”
“Probably without prejudice to your recommendation at this stakeholder meeting, we probably at the policy level have to consider making chartering optional,” he emphasised.
Mr Iddrisu charged the committee not to just focus on Sections 26 and 28 of the Act, but look within the law, whatever aspects of it.
Presenting the recommendations, Mr Ansa-Asare, who chaired the committee, said it was not in the nation’s interest to foist compulsory charter on institutions.
“We of the committee have strongly recommended that Section 40 subsection two of the Act 1023 should be removed.”
“That section is the section that mandates compulsory charter. If that is removed from the law, then it becomes optional,” he said.
Other institutions
That, he said, would then allow private institutions to grow like Fourah Bay University in Sierra Leone to Valley View in Ghana at “one’s own pace.”
A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Emeritus Ivan Addae-Mensah, who chaired the event, said institutional and programme accreditation should be compulsory but charter could be optional but under very strict regulatory scrutiny.
The governance structure of the regulatory authority, he said, must be modelled such that it would possess the clout and command.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Peter Nortsu Kotoe, said after going round the various institutions and speaking to stakeholders, the committee had come to the conclusion that charter should be made optional.
The Member of Parliament of Kwadaso and a former Executive Secretary of the then National Accreditation Board (NAB), Prof. Kingsley Nyarko, said the board at the time had agreed that Section 40 of the Act be reconsidered for charter to be optional.
