NAB Executive Secretary explains university accreditations process

Methodist University College

Kwame Dattey, Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) appeared on Joy FM's Super Morning Show Tuesday to explain that before his organization fully charters a university, the school must serve as an affiliate institution to a mentor university.

He said that while these institutions work as university colleges under fully accredited, autonomous universities, they cannot issue their own certificates. The parent institution takes responsibility for the goings on at the lower institution and must therefore issue diplomas on the institution's behalf.

Dattey explained that affiliates must operate under mentor institutions for a minimum of one year before they are eligible to become autonomous, and even before the year is up, the NAB may send auditors to observe operations.

Then, once the NAB is ready to consider the school for full accreditation, they conduct a full review of the school's institutional structures, finances, curricula, and facilities to ensure that the institution will be self-sufficient in functioning and maintaining institutional standards.

Dattey added that autonomous schools receive funding for taking on affiliates, but that they are not obligated to take on affiliates if they feel unqualified to do so.

He, however, declined to comment on the Methodist University College of Ghana, which admitted over 1400 students lacking the grades necessary for entry, because the school's case is currently being heard in court.

However, some of his remarks on the Super Morning Show are relevant to the case when read in terms of a statement he issued on the controversy last August, when he said that primary responsibility rests with the mentor universities to ensure that affiliates comply with the admission requirements.

On the Super Morning Show, he insisted that it would be irresponsible for a parent university to take on affiliates that it is not prepared to supervise because accreditation is much more valuable than the money the schools receives for acting as a mentor.

He explained that if the country's certifications as a whole were to lose international recognition, it could be disastrous for all Ghanaians. In other words, parent schools that accept affiliates but do little to keep them in line are gambling with the nation's fortunes.