Presidential control of university councils is a recipe for chaos

In most countries, the appointment of a female vice-chancellor at its most prestigious university is usually a moment of celebration as another milestone on the road to gender equality is passed.

The arrival of Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo to the helm of the University of Ghana this month feels rather different. That is no slight on my new boss, who is highly qualified and will doubtless prove a popular and capable leader. Moreover, when only 8 per cent of Ghana’s professors are women – and male students outnumber female students by almost two to one – her elevation to v-c, albeit in an acting capacity, remains a significant landmark for our academy. Previously, only two women have risen to the rank of pro v-c, herself and Florence Dolphyne.

Instead, my thoughts turn to the next step in efforts to find a permanent leader. Since 2004, my university has taken advantage of Ghana’s constitution, passed in 1992, which prohibited the president from either serving as chancellor or directly appointing one. Instead, a chancellor must be chosen by the university council. In turn, the chancellor can also choose a council chair whose panel will appoint a vice-chancellor.

These somewhat circular governance arrangements were not perfect but they largely removed political patronage and cronyism from leadership decisions – unlike countries like Turkey where university rectors are now routinely handpicked by its president, even if their academic credentials are not always compelling.

Unfortunately, legislation passed in 2010 removed this important safeguard of academic freedom in Ghana. The power to appoint the council chair was taken away from the chancellor and the academic board, and placed in the hands of the president. This rearrangement is based on the flawed claim that a university council is the same as the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission. Consequently, all public universities have adopted the same approach.

But a university regulator and a university are two very separate and distinct entities with different characters and functions. At a technical level, the commission is a public body answerable to ministers, while a university council is not – or should not be, at least.

University councils are now considered as public boards or corporations. Based on the provisions of the 2012 Presidential (Transition) Act, all boards and corporations (including university councils) ceased to exist from January when the president was sworn into office following his re-election.

Before then, the tenure of some government appointees on the council and duration of some university councils had expired and the government extended their lifespans. However, no new extensions were issued when the latest one expired in May 2021, and the public universities were left in limbo for months, subject to arbitrary rule by some university administrators whose actions could not be checked by non-existent university boards.

This chaotic arrangement did little to help the search for a new permanent vice-chancellor for my institution. While the executive search for a vice-chancellor began in December, a lawsuit was also filed to Accra’s high court challenging the mandate of the steering committee, claiming that some members of the search panel were representatives of the previous council and, as their term has expired, their presence on the committee was unlawful.

The appointment of the new university council chair Sophia Akuffo – who trained as a lawyer under Ghana’s current president Nana Akufo-Addo – and the creation of a new university council may mean a fresh start, but it will not reassure scholars that academia can stay above partisan national politics.

It was to avoid such a quagmire that those who framed Ghana’s constitution, in their wisdom, created a system where a president is allowed to replace a limited number of university council members only after the expiration of his or her term or when a new government comes to power, rather than reconstituting the entire board from scratch.

This way, rampant interference and intermittent disruption of university work through the termination of their university councils would not occur and governing councils will continue their functions uninterrupted.

Instead, I fear political tinkering will dictate how my university and Ghana’s higher education institutions more generally will be run. The universities must not be held to ransom in this way by the powers that be.

Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua is associate professor at the School of Law at the University of Ghana.