Merging GIJ, NAFTI and GIL Will Help Them Atain University Status

Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, has explained that government's decision to merge the Ghana Institute of Journalism, the Ghana Institute of Languages and the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) into one tertiary Institute is to help them obtain a university license.

Professor Yankah said though the three institutions have applied to be Universities they do not meet the standard.

Speaking to Citi News, Professor Yankah said “Certainly it is one of the legislative instruments we are considering because GIJ applied to be a university separately and NAFTI also applied to be a university. ”

“Sitting back we realized that maybe none of them on its own has fully satisfied the requirement to be a university, but if you merge them, they can become various colleges or faculties within one university as it has been done in several parts of the world,” he said.

In November 2018, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, mentioned that the government has initiated processes to merge three of the country's public tertiary institutions, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL) into one.

The consolidated institutions would be known as the National Institute of Communication and Media Arts.

Mr. Ofori-Atta, presenting the 2019 budget statement in Parliament said,

“Mr. Speaker, processes have also commenced to merge the Ghana Institute of Languages, National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) into the National Institute of Communication and Media Arts. In 2019, the necessary regulatory Bill will be put together with stakeholder consultations,” he said.

Mr. Ofori-Atta told Parliament that the move to merge the three institutions forms part of government's commitment to expand tertiary education opportunities to meet increasing demand and the skill needs of the country.

Of the three institutions, only GIJ has been granted a Presidential Charter to award its own degrees, diplomas and certificates for programmes accredited by the National Accreditation Board, while NAFTI does so due to its affiliation with the University of Ghana.

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Source: citinewsroom.com | Ghana