What is happening at the UG Graduate School?

A friend of mine furiously stated sometime ago that he would rather live the rest of his life without a master's degree than pursue one at the University of Ghana where he had his first degree. I looked at him with disdain and decided never to utter any word in response because I couldn't, in the least, guarantee a polite word from my big mouth. Perhaps there were some invisible maggots in his head and any effort to put sense in his coconut brain would be fruitless. How could somebody in his right state of mind make such a callous statement?

My conclusion was that he was aware of the number of applicants that were refused admission every year, and knowing he could not sail through the frightening admission process, he decided to play a psychological game (defense mechanism) to justify his inability to pursue a postgraduate degree. But how reckless I was in my judgment! I had unknowingly committed “fallacy of hasty conclusion.” I didn't take the pain to ask for a detailed explanation from him. I later got to know that he arrived at this based on a simple syllogism:

Premise 1: He knew many people (including his siblings) who did their MA/MPhil at the UG and it took them forever to have their dissertations marked let alone have their certificates.

Premise 2: He didn't have the heart to contain the professional frustration that the Graduate School would put him through as he would have to spend the rest of his life chasing his certificate.

Conclusion: He would rather live the rest of his life without a master's degree than to pursue one at the University of Ghana.

Every student who pursues a graduate degree is required to present researched paper as a prerequisite for graduation. This may be called Thesis or Dissertation depending on which programme the person offers. But what I have realized is that, whiles graduate students from other Universities become relieved and relaxed after their final examinations, those of the University of Ghana are met with chains of frustrations.

You should be a very lucky person to have your supervisor read your draft research at the first submission. Many a times, you are asked to print and submit the same thing three or four times because the one you submitted earlier will “get missing” in your supervisor's box before it gets to him or her. If you are lucky to submit it personally to him or her, no matter where you reside, you should be prepared to go to campus for, at least, five times to have him put some red or black inscriptions on your paper. If you decide to submit the work chapter after chapter, then you need to buy a big scientific calculate to calculate the number of times you need to go to Legon and the amount of money you need for transportation before you finish chapter five.

If you are not prepared to go through this stress, and you have already written your final examination, the best you can do is to avoid writing the thesis/dissertation and forfeit your certificate. Those who manage to survive this and submit their work may think they have finished, but trust me; you may have to wait for two or three more years to have your 60-120 page thesis/dissertation marked. Bear in mind that until your dissertation is marked and passed, you cannot graduate. Recently, a colleague who completed his programme in 2007 went to enquire about the status of his dissertation only for him to be told that, his work could not be traced. He was then asked to print another copy and submit for marking. How could I have accused my friend of breeding maggots in his brain if he foresaw this and decided to run away from it?

I think it is about time the authorities of the UG Graduate School stopped playing with people's lives and future. The question is what is causing this problem? Who is/are responsible for marking these papers? Some officials have blamed external examiners for this delay but, with all due respect, this is flimsy. Can't these examiners be given timeframe within which to submit their marked scripts since they are paid for the work they do? These are the issues that the authorities should be busy with and not how to change Commonwealth Hall into a mixed sex hall (I don't want to get into this issue though).

This problem has been there for years and one would have thought that the numerous reforms that have taken place in the University over the past few years would have a positive impact on the management and running of the Graduate School. The bitter truth however is that, it has become worse. My next question is, are the University authorities not aware of this problem? How long do they want graduate students to wait to have this issue resolved? What did the visitation Panel have to say about this problem?

The University prides itself as the 'Premier University' in teaching, research and knowledge dissemination and must exist as such. I therefore want to use this opportunity to appeal to the University authorities to take a second (or third) look at the activities of the Graduate School since its inaction is giving the University a negative image.

If these rules are effective made and implemented, the School can make a significant headway:

Set strict deadlines for the submission of dissertations/thesis
Decide on when the dissertations should be given to all examiners (both internal and external) for marking.
Give all examiners strict deadlines to mark and return their scripts.
Long live the University of Ghana.