KNUST describes accreditation infractions in Auditor General’s report as false

The Managements of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have described portions of the Auditor General’s report that the institution had been running unapproved programmes as false.

According to management of the university, the school as a law abiding institution have always run programs which are well accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) arguing that the university cannot be blamed if the body responsible for working on accreditation for those existing programmes had not done its job as expected.

The management, has therefore, described as inaccurate in some portions of the Auditor General’s report that said only 61 out of 360 programmes in the institution had been accredited adding that the University has fully complied with regulations by Ghana Tertiary Education Commission.

The University Relations Officer for KNUST Dr Norris Bekoe in an interview on Kumasi based OTEC 102.9 FM’s “Nyansapo” show on Thursday September 1, 2022, said the Auditor-General had it wrong when it said the university was offering unaccredited programs.

“We have submitted over 468 applications for existing programs, so when the documents are with GTEC, and they haven’t been worked on, there is a little delay. That is not to say, the university is running unaccredited programs. KNUST existed long ago before the setting up of the National Accreditation Board and GTEC so most of these programs we are talking about have been running for over 70 years. So how can one say that, these programs that have trained some of the finest brains in this country are unaccredited?” Dr. Daniel Norris Bekoe quizzed.

“These programs the Auditor-General are referring to are all existing programs that had been approved by GTEC and it baffle me when the Auditor-General reports that we are going contrary to the laid down procedures as university”.

“It’s very true that KNUST currently has 468 programs on the tables of GTEC for re-accreditation but that does not necessarily mean these courses were not approved”

“Let me put on record that these courses had already been approved but needed re-accreditation from GTEC after some changes were made even that we have fully submitted the program to GTEC long time ago so it’s not our fault GTEC has been slow in approving it”. He told the programme’s  host of the show Captain Koda.

Background

The Auditor-General’s report for 2021 revealed that some academic programmes offered by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have not been accredited.

The report dated June 1, 2022, is addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin.

According to details of the report, “out of the 360 programmes run by the University, only 61 have been accredited, 190 sent to National Accreditation Board (NAB) for accreditation and reaccreditation with 109 yet to be sent to NAB for accreditation.”

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The Auditor-General has therefore “recommended to Management to cease running programmes that are not accredited or having its accredited certificates expired, until they are accredited or renewed, to avoid sanctions by NAB.”

Source:  Ghana/otecfmghana.com/