Management of the university system holds the key to the nation’s holistic development. Howbeit, there seems to be a rising incidence of mismanagement in many facets of the university system in recent times.
This trend manifests in major areas such as improper promotions, unlawful dismissals and corrupt appointments amongst others. When it comes to promotions and appointments, some individuals work hard to achieve it while others resort to alternative means that lack merit.
These happenings have reared their faces in the Ghanaian Tertiary Education space in recent times, not excluding the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA). The UPSA appears to have experienced a peak in this phenomenon, which warrants national attention.
The following headings address the specific issues:
Promotions
Under Prof. Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey’s tenure as Vice-Chancellor of the UPSA, promotions have been characterized by cronyism without recourse to the regulations of the university.
While many of his known cronies are promoted within a short period upon application, others with more enhanced credentials are either denied without recourse to the provisions of the promotion guidelines, not responded to or publicly humiliated for challenging the unfair promotion criteria.
For ease of cross-checks, the common platform for all academics is Google Scholar, with Scopus, SCImago and Indescience being more enhanced platform for recognizing the works of academics. A cursory examination of the works of most of the so-called professors reveals pseudo-academics unworthy of their professorship status. The public may want to establish the credibility of the UPSA’s professors on Scopus (please type Scopus author ID, follow prompts, and check the number of papers).
The university community received notice of Dr. Koryoe Anim-Wright’s retirement as registrar at age 60.
The university wrote to the university community after nearly three months, from March to June, 2024, to announce the promotion of the retired registrar from senior lecturer to associate professor.
Although she began her tenure at the university as a lecturer, she transitioned from full-time academic senior member to administrative staff (registrar), from which in accordance with the circular above.
For clarity, it should be noted that registrars do not fall under academic senior members (those who can rise to become professors), as noted on page 118, provision 28.2 of the Fundamental Regulations 2013 presented below. As noted on her Scopus profile, she has only one (1) paper in the Scopus database, which clearly undermines the university’s own criteria of meeting a minimum of seven (7) papers indexed in the Scopus database of which she should have been a lead author of at least four (4).
Scopus checks also revealed that Dr. Koryoe has one paper to her credit.
Appointments
Every public institution expects its appointment processes to ensure fairness, transparency, knowledge, experience and merit-based recognition.
Appointment processes are instituted to ensure that the appointment process is equitable and inclusive, addressing any biases that might affect the evaluation of candidates from diverse backgrounds and consistently applying the criteria and standards across all employees and candidates to maintain the integrity of the appointment process.
The administration led by Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey (DBA) and Ohene Konadu (council chair) has consistently flouted the processes, steps, rules and regulations governing academic institutions to create a fair and effective appointment process that recognizes and rewards excellence in teaching, research, service, and sacrifices for academic and non-academic staff. Below, we provide systematic details of some unethical promotions and appointments at UPSA.
The incoming Vice Chancellor, John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor (DBA), who was recently appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor, assumed office as Pro-VC effective January 2023.
In May 2024, Mawutor (DBA) was appointed the incoming Vice-Chancellor, seven months ahead.
The incoming Vice Chancellor, Mawutor (DBA), has no first degree or its equivalent, no MPhil or its equivalent or related research master’s degree, and no research-related terminal degree (PhD) or its equivalent, all of which are global academic requirements. Investigating the processes that led to his appointment as the Vice Chancellor of a burgeoning 21st-century university is crucial, as there remain unanswered questions about his ascent to an associate professor position under the Okoe-Ohene Konadu-led administration, despite evidence of rejections of his application by external examiners.
Is it not interesting that Mawutor (DBA) is currently on a PhD program at Stellenbosch University, yet he currently wrote to inform faculty that, GTEC has instructed that to be promoted, one needs a PhD at a minimum? Which PhD degree did he use to apply for an associate professor rank in the Okoe-Ohene Konadu-led administration to merit this promotion?
Again, contrary to the provisions of the University’s Act (page 8, point 17), the Okoe-Ohene Konadu-led administration has created the position of another Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Innovation and Knowledge Transfer (RIKT), which is an affront to the sanity of the University community (Please see the provision for a Pro- VC below). Furthermore, the Act only provides for a single Pro-VC, making the appointment inconsistent with the same provision.
Besides, the person appointed to the position is purported to have issues with his doctoral certificate (worth investigating). Yet, still on the promotion of this same person from senior lecturer to associate professor, Professor Samuel Antwi had used some papers previously used at his former university (Koforidua Technical University) for the application of senior lecturer in his application for the associate professorship (worth investigating). Note also that the said person has no paper in the name of UPSA. He publishes under Zhejiang Gongshang University. Ideally, faculty should publish in the name of their universities to ensure visibility of same.
As of the time of sending putting this information out to the press, we had gathered that, contrary to the directives of the Government Transition Team on promotions and appointments, the Okoe Konadu-led administration had promoted some faculty members just last week in a bid to entrench their own within the system as their tenure ends on 31st December, 2024.
Conclusion
Following these developments, we firmly believe that the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), the Government Transition Team and the Ministry of Education should take steps to sanitize not only the UPSA but related institutions that operate in contradiction to good conscience and the laws establishing them. halt the VC investiture schedule for 27th December 2024 in order to investigate these assertions and prevent future governance infractions.
Source: A Team of Lecturers at the UPSA/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
