No PhD, No Job Policy Hostile And Unachievable--Lecturer Tells NAPO

The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh recently announced that if a lecturer has no PhD, he or she cannot teach in any university in Ghana.

According to Napo “Now if you do not hold a PhD, you will not be able to teach in a university,” the Education Minister said this at Meet The Press series on Tuesday, 20 November, 2018, and caveat that, “But most of the lecturers in our colleges of education do not hold PhD. So, we are giving them time to improve their knowledge through the British government support”.

It is in this direction that ace lecturer, Dr Da Costa Aboagye, has resisted the policy of “No PhD, No Job” arguing that it is ill- thought out, hostile and unachievable in any university in the world.

Dr. Aboagye Da Costa, one of the assessors of the United Kingdom National Academic Excellent Frameworks at University of West London said, the policy is over ambitious, short sighted and could deprive Ghanaian universities of experience professionals capable of teaching at that level.

Speaking to Newsghana.com.gh, Dr Aboagye noted such a policy will only broaden the lecturer to student ratio in Ghanaian universities.

“Why would we want to do this as a country with limited human resources at the university level? What is a lecturer to university student ratio?” he quizzed.

“We, as a country should find ways to develop our human capital at all levels through innovative and practical ways far from hostile interventions because the greatest assets or resources we have are the Ghanaian people,” he added.

Dr Aboagye encourage the government to extend some of the educational reforms recently introduced for secondary school teachers like licensing to experience professionals and people with masters degree to teach in the various universities.

This can be developed by national accreditation boards through a portfolio-oriented skill based training or a higher institution teaching qualification which is easily achievable.

He however suggested that, teaching and research careers within Ghanaian universities should rather be categorised into tiers like academic practitioners, research practitioners, teaching academic and etc.

This according to him will create more employment for young master degree holders and experienced professionals wanting to teach in our universities.

This will also be in line with the government's effort to restructure tertiary institutions to absorb high number of students being trained under the Free Senior High School Policy.

Dr. Aboagye supported the efforts made by Ghanaian universities to encourage staff to undertake PhD's but this should not be a universal policy as a sole qualification on employment within the academia considering the various staff tiers.

“At best, a PhD should be a desirable requirement on a person's specification for employment within Ghanaian universities if staff are equipped on Teaching Excellent Frameworks,” the fellow of Higher Education Academy of England and Wales advised.