December 2007

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Report of the Visitation Panel begins with background on the University of Ghana, giving a brief overview of its history and summarising the political and economic upheavals that have led to the deterioration of its teaching and research functions (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 sets the University of Ghana in its African and national contexts, underlining the challenges facing both the government and the University and noting the special importance of quality assurance.

Chapter 3 is the core of the report. Its three sections review the key areas in the Panel's Terms of Reference:

1.      Governance, Management and Administration.

2.      The University of Ghana as an Academic Institution.

3.      Infrastructure and Resources.

Each section reports on the Panel's analysis of the issues, describes its conclusions and presents recommendations for action.

The Panel has tried to give clear and specific recommendations without being over prescriptive. Where possible it has responded to Council's request for examples from practice in other countries that place its recommendations in a broader international context.

The issues encountered by the Panel were complex and numerous. Since not all of them could be tackled with the same level of depth it has focused particularly on what it considered to be the most significant challenges facing the University. Some recommendations are for immediate action while others will take longer to address.

The Recommendations reflect the understanding of the University that the Panel gained through two week-long site visits in April and August 2007, individual visits by some panel members, and review of relevant documentation and literature.

Governance, Management and Administration

The recommendations in this section address five issues that the Panel judged to be priorities:

1.      Changes should be made to the role and composition of the Council. After comparing the current composition and role of the Council with practice in other countries, the Panel recommends that the Council be enlarged so as to have a majority of lay members. It also makes recommendations on the functions of the Council and the Committee structure needed to carry them out.

2.      The Panel recommends renewing the Academic Board structure by reducing its membership, abolishing certain committees, changing the function of others, and creating some new ones.

3.      Concluding that the existing organisational structure of the University was dysfunctional, the Panel considered that the organisation of management and administration was a priority issue. Key recommendations are the establishment of a Policy and Executive Committee and making the Registrar the Chief Operating Officer.

4.      Student representation in governing bodies is not the current practice at the University of Ghana. Citing examples from Europe and elsewhere, the Panel   recommends student participation in the key decision-making bodies of the University.

5.      With the aim of improving student life the Panel recommends the creation of a new post of Director of Student Residences; making the post of Dean of Students full-time; and having a Pro-Vice Chancellor assume responsibility for formal communication between the student body and the University administration.

The University of Ghana as an Academic Institution

The recommendations in this section address the Student Population and the Academic Core:

1.      Concerning the student population the Panel addressed two issues:

(a)    The enrolment explosion is the cause of many of the University's problems. The Panel recommends reducing the intake of students; placing a limit on class size; balancing student numbers with physical infrastructure and faculty capacity; introducing stronger policy for gender parity; promoting distance learning to absorb continuing demand; and expanding Accra City Campus.

(b)   The University does not produce adequate numbers of graduates competent in science and technology. To raise the quality of science teaching and create a better balance between Science and Technology and the Humanities, the Panel recommends: improving laboratories; including science and technology in university-wide courses for non-science majors; and granting advance credit for students from secondary schools that offer electives in the sciences.

2.   The academic core raised a range of issues because the reputation of any university depends on the quality of its faculty, the richness and breadth of its undergraduate curriculum, the strength of its graduate programmes and its research.

(a)    To strengthen the faculty, key recommendations are: to enforce the Ph.D. requirement for appointment to lectureships; to have a proactive policy to attract and retain qualified faculty through new incentives; special support for female faculty to complete terminal degrees; and to strengthen teaching and research in various ways such as orientation programmes, teaching innovation funds, start-up research grants, and mentoring young lecturers.

(b)   The Panel found that in some departments the curriculum had not been reviewed for many years. Recommendations include: departmental and curriculum reviews every five years; student evaluation of courses and instructors; new interdisciplinary courses; a course on Gender and Development for all students; and the internationalisation of student experience.

(c)    The Panel found that the academic organisation needed improvement and urges that any move to a collegiate structure be postponed at least until the other recommendations in the Report have been implemented. These include: delegating greater power to the faculties for appointments and promotions; reviewing the semester and course/credit system and its associated examinations; allowing the flexibility to hold examinations only at the end of year for courses that are not yet properly modularised; expanding intranet and internet facilities; encouraging the use of audio-visual technology in teaching; and improving lines of accountability.

(d)    Concerning graduate study the Panel recommends: an urgent review of graduate programmes by departments for relevance and breadth of courses; more use of visiting professors and professionals from outside the University; strategic fundraising from industry for research; rethinking the graduate school administration; and creating more synergy between Institutes and Centres and academic units.

(e)     Since the examinations system has borne the brunt of the excessive expansion of student numbers the Panel recommends: an in-depth study of the semester-course/credit system with a focus on examinations; that the Academic Quality Assurance Unit carry out staff development to embed a culture of quality assurance and quality enhancement; and that faculty be given full responsibility of assessing and assigning grades for courses they teach.

(f)      To mainstream elements of quality assurance the Panel recommends: strengthening the Academic Quality Assurance Unit, which should report to a new Academic Quality Curriculum, Quality and Staff Development Committee to be Chaired by a Pro-Vice Chancellor; departmental reviews every five years to be preceded by self-assessment exercises and quality audits; and annual exit surveys of the graduating class with periodic surveys of employers.

Infrastructure and Resources

This section addresses a series of vital issues that include financial management, ICTs, Human Resources, Health and Security under twelve headings:

1.      Problems with the financial administrative system are so pervasive and damaging that the University, at the Panel's suggestion, commissioned an Investigating Team to focus on this area. Its report appears in full in Section 3.3.1 and its recommendations include: (i) renewing the structure and leadership of the Finance Office; (ii) retaining the ITS financial software but establishing a special task group to oversee its complete implementation; (iii) improved and more transparent accounting and financial reporting; (iv) reviewing internal and external audit arrangements; (v) improving treasury management; and (vi) developing a financial strategy for the University.

2.      Concerning ICT and management information systems the Panel recommends: updating and modernising the existing ICT-MIS strategy; integrating the MIS and ICT directorates; extending Intranet services by laying a fibre optic backbone; increasing external bandwidth for faster internet access; using wireless technology extensively; and training staff across the University in the use and management of ICT.

3.      The Panel recommends a paradigm shift in the Balme Library, moving the focus from books to e-books, online data access, access to library resources via the intranet and training the staff for these new functions;

4.      To improve human resource management, the Panel recommends the development of a strategy by the Human Resource and Organisational Development Directorate (HRODD) for: updating schedules of duties (job descriptions); updating the staff establishment to guide appointments and promotions; creating induction and orientation programmes for newly appointed staff; and completing the Manpower Audit by July 2008. The University should negotiate with Government to outsource some non-core services such as waste disposal and office cleaning.

5.      Recommendations relating to water, electricity, and sewage call for the development of an infrastructure master plan to ensure that future developments take the availability of utilities fully into account.

6.      On security the Panel recommends: fencing of core area of the campus; extending street lighting; providing adequate facilities, training and compensation for security staff; improving intelligence gathering; and examining the outsourcing of some duties.

7.      To improve health services the Panel recommends making the University Hospital self-sufficient with the provision of a surgical facility.

8.      The Panel recommends that the University develops a strategy for dealing with epidemics, including an isolation ward for infectious diseases and voluntary testing for HIV.

9.      The Panel recommends support for improvement plans underway for counselling and psychiatric illness, including more attractive conditions of service for medical personnel.

10.  To help address gender issues the Panel recommends housing for new junior women faculty and the establishment of a nursery and after-school day care centre on campus under private management.

11.  Regarding halls and hostels the Panel recommends that the halls are evacuated and rehabilitated before further deterioration; that the subsequent re-population of the residences eliminates 'perching'; and that the private sector be encouraged to provide and operate new hostels.

12.  The Panel's final recommendations on academic infrastructure call for the provision of new physical and technological facilities to support teaching and learning.