A Review of the Multiple Regulatory Regime in 17 Tertiary Education in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana like many other African countries has had more than one agency regulating its tertiary education sector. Thus, in that multiple  regulatory environment, different regulatory institutions were responsible for policy and funding, accreditation and regulation of aspects  of vocational and technical education. Consequently, the regulatory environment comprised agencies with overlapping mandates which tertiary education institutions were required to respond to, whether to commence operations or mount new programmes. The  challenges in this arrangement included duplication of functions, high cost of education, and in the main, inefficiency and in effectiveness  in the regulation and management of tertiary education. The Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) was enacted in Ghana as  part of reforms to the education sector in 2020. This legislation merged the erstwhile National Council for Tertiary Education and the  National Accreditation Board to form the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, as well as the merger of the Council for Technical and  Vocational Education and Training and the National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations to form the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. This paper discusses the state of affairs regarding the multiple regulations of tertiary  education in Ghana prior to the mergers and the future of tertiary education regulation in Ghana in the light of reforms in tertiary  education regulation and the regulatory practices in selected African countries.