The chancellor of the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA), Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong, has penned a letter, distancing himself from a vice-chancellor’s investiture ceremony whose legality is being challenged at a high court by an ex-student of the school, Rashid Ibrahim.
Dr. Sarpong told the chairman of the university’s governing council, Dr. Kofi Ohene-Konadu, in that letter that he did not see “a valid basis” for swearing in Prof. John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor as the university’s vice-chancellor considering the legal issues surrounding it.
This is what the chancellor, who declined to attend the investiture ceremony, wrote moments before the event was held on Friday, 27 December 2024, at the school:
RE: RASHID IBRAHIM VERSUS UNIVERSITY OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES, ACCRA
I write regarding the above suit and other developments in print and social media, bordering on appointments and promotions at the UPSA.
Following the service of the writ on UPSA, I joined a Council meeting via phone on 24th December 2024 in which Council informed me that it had resolved to suspend the investiture of the new Vice-Chancellor until a determination by the courts of the interlocutory injunction filed by the Plaintiff in the suit.
On the morning of 27th December 2024, you informed me via WhatsApp that an Emergency Council meeting held in the night of 26th December 2024, had decided to proceed with the investiture based on advice of some lawyers and that I was expected to be present. I was neither present nor invited to the meeting. I was also not privy to the basis for the lawyers’ advice.
Given the pending application for injunction and the significant unresolved issues raised in the writ, I do not see a valid basis for proceeding with the investiture. As such, I am unable to attend the event.
The university’s registrar, Lorraine Gyan, replied to the chancellor the same day, claiming the school was not formally served with any “writ, legal document, or correspondence.”
“Consequently, I have not received any application for an interlocutory injunction against the university. At the council meeting you attended, our lawyers advised that media reports about a writ, absent a proper court order, could not prevent the university from proceeding with its planned investiture ceremony,” she said.
Speaking to Media Without Borders, the counsel for the plaintiff (the former student), Abdul-Aziz Gomda, said the contents of the chancellor’s letter confirmed the university was served with the writ and the motion for interlocutory injunction prior to the investiture ceremony.
“The chancellor’s letter proved that they (the university) were duly served. That’s the whole point. Whatever the registrar said is just to play politics with the whole process. You would recall the chancellor made reference to a meeting where it was advised that they should not proceed.
“Then, subsequent to that meeting, they issued public notice, postponing the investiture. So, to clearly come back within some few hours and convene an emergency meeting at such an ungodly hour without notice to even the chancellor suggests they knew they were acting in a dubious manner,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer further stated that there was evidence that the university was duly served with the court documents, contrary to the registrar’s claims.
“The court will determine whether they were served or not. There is prima facie evidence that they were served. There is proof of service by an officer of the court that they were served.
“Until contrary evidence is advanced to suggest that the officer of the court, who in this case is the bailiff, did not serve them, it holds that they were duly served. They would have to adduce evidence to suggest that they were not served,” he stated.
The UPSA controversy is one of the several unusual happenings seen in recent times at public universities across Ghana under the watch of the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai.
Background
The university’s management announced on May 6, 2024, the appointment of Prof. Mawutor as its vice-chancellor effective January 1, 2025.
It also appointed Prof. Emmanuel Selase Asamoah as pro-vice-chancellor for academic and student affairs and Prof. Samuel Antwi as pro-vice-chancellor for research innovation and knowledge transfer.
The plaintiff (the ex-student) tells the court in his statement of claim that the university committed some “infractions and illegalities” through its governing council prior to Prof. Mawutor’s appointment.
He says the infractions and illegalities “undermine the established rules and guidelines for the appointment and promotion of academic staff as contained in the revised version of the criteria for appointments and promotions of” senior academic staff.
The revised version, according to the alumnus, requires the university to promote a senior lecturer to the rank of an associate professor only if the applicant has a minimum of 7 articles published in reputable journals among other requirements.
He avers that Prof. Mawutor did not meet the standard required to be promoted to the rank of an associate professor yet the defendant (the university) disregarded the guidelines by promoting him to that rank.
“Having been unlawfully elevated to the rank of associate professor, the validity of the subsequent appointment of John Kwaku Mensah Mawutor as vice chancellor of the respondent is now being questioned as per the writ of summons and statement of claim issued by the applicant in this instant suit, inviting this honourable [court] to make a determination to that effect,” the plaintiff says in paragraph 9 of his statement of claim.
In paragraph 10 of his statement of claim, the former student says the university also breached the rules by appointing Prof. Asamoah as pro-vice-chancellor for academic and student affairs and Prof. Antwi as pro-vice-chancellor for research innovation and knowledge transfer “without any legal basis.”
He says the appointments breach the Act of Parliament that established UPSA as a public university.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
