The aspect of decentralisation in the new Universities Bill has been dropped, Education Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempheh has said.

According to him, the bill will go ahead without the decentralisation aspect which generated a lot of controversy among various unions in the country’s universities.

“We have heard much about the pre-tertiary education bill, and that the listening government has listened to the unions, and have deleted from the pre-tertiary education bill the union most vociferous concern, decentralization; so the bill will go ahead with some union reforms but those aspects that deal with decentralization have been dropped from the bill”, the Minister told the press on Tuesday 2nd June 2020.

In the area of tertiary education, Dr. Opoku Prempeh said the government has given universities financial clearance to recruit about 6,108 staff.

“Almost every university that requires a financial clearance has been given financial clearance. Also, the government has agreed to give post retired lecturers contract if you a professorial grade up to the age of 70 and if you are non-professorial up to the age of 65. For all academic staff at the universities who are willing to serve and whose services are needed by the universities, government has approved being given contract”, he revealed.

He pointed out that government has restored the books and research allowance in favour of a tertiary refund bill, and has increased it by 200 percent from GHS500 to GHS1,500, saying “all in addition government has placed before the Parliament of Ghana, Ghana National Research Fund Bill to bring in more investments to support research in this country.”