The University Teachers’ Association of Ghana, University of Ghana Branch (UTAG-UG), has called for the immediate resignation of the Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), accusing them of incompetence and administrative overreach.
In a press statement issued on Monday, January 19, 2026, UTAG-UG demanded that Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai and Prof. Augustine Ocloo step down by January 31, 2026, or face a petition to the Chief of Staff and possible industrial action.
The lecturers’ group accused the GTEC leadership of abandoning the commission’s core mandate to pursue what it described as “tangential and sometimes frivolous actions, such as chasing people with ‘fake degrees’, while neglecting the fundamental issues affecting tertiary education in Ghana.”
Dr Jerry Joe Harrison, President of UTAG-UG, and Dr Godfred B. Hagan, Secretary, signed the statement, which detailed a litany of complaints against the regulatory body established under the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023).
“The quality of education being provided by public tertiary educational institutions in Ghana is at an all-time low due to insufficient budgetary support – largely restricted to payment of salaries, inadequate infrastructure, poor remuneration for lecturers, etc., and yet GTEC appears indifferent to these systemic problems,” the statement read.
UTAG-UG accused GTEC of overstepping its mandate by interfering in the operations of university governing councils and undermining the authority of vice-chancellors.
The association questioned GTEC’s legal basis for removing the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, and challenged the commission to cite which specific provision in Act 1023 empowered such intervention.
Among the specific grievances raised was a directive from GTEC, dated October 1, 2025, requiring lecturers to retire immediately upon turning 60, rather than at the end of the academic year as has been the practice.
“If a lecturer’s birthday falls in the middle of the semester and retires forthwith on attaining 60 years, forfeiting any offer of post-retirement contract, how do the students who have registered for the courses being taught by that person, as well as project students being supervised by that person finish the rest of the semester and the academic year?” the statement queried.
The lecturers also criticised what they described as GTEC’s adversarial approach to engaging with tertiary institution managers, citing an incident where Prof. Jinapor wrote to the University of Ghana demanding a reversal of a purported 25% fee increment based on a false media report.
“This turned out to be a hoax as no such increment had been occasioned. He could have ascertained the veracity or otherwise of such a report through a phone call to the management of the University of Ghana before misleading the public,” UTAG-UG stated.
The association further lamented the government’s three-year freeze on recruitment clearance for universities, even to replace staff who have resigned, retired, or died, saying this has increased lecturers’ workload and damaged the quality of education.
UTAG-UG warned that the actions of the GTEC leadership represent “a pattern of incompetent administration” that undermines academic freedom enshrined in the 1992 constitution and institutional autonomy.
The group also called for the immediate enactment of a Legislative Instrument to guide the implementation of Act 1023 to prevent future abuse of power by GTEC leadership.
“We urge all other UTAG campuses and sister institutions to join this fight against tyranny, oppression, and administrative abuse, to restore sanity and hope to our public education institutions,” the statement concluded.
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