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An investigative research report which is in possession of Today has called for the immediate dissolution of the country’s National Accreditation Board (NAB).

Consequently the report called for the reconstitution of NAB by returning to Parliament to seek prosecutorial powers, so it [the NAB] can haul individuals and institutions that flout its legal instruments to court.

The report titled: “The Accreditation Challenges in Transnational Educational Ecology: The Ghanaian Experience,” was conducted by two United States of America  (USA) based-Ghanaian Professors, Dr. Prosper Yao Tsikata  and Dr. A. Kobla Dotse.

It examined the accreditation regimes across three countries—the US, United Kingdom (UK) and Ghana.
 
The research also took into consideration a comparative analysis of what a doctoral degree in its various forms—residency, online, and honoris causa—entails.
Although it noted that the UK and the USA operate different accreditation regimes, the report underscored that it was easy for anyone to ascertain the accreditation status of institutions operating in these countries.

And while Ghana also operates an accreditation, the findings of the research asserted that the regime was fraught with peculiar problems that need urgent attention.

That, according to the report, has brought the NAB under an immense public scrutiny.

It indicted the NAB for failing to perform its gatekeeping role in protecting the credibility of educational products sold to the Ghanaian public by some unaccredited educational institutions.

And that, the report indicated, was due to weak accreditation regime in Ghana which situation, individuals and institutions of dubious backgrounds have taken the NAB’s accreditation regime for granted and flouted its authority with impunity.

It further indicated that some of the institutions in question were in breach of NAB’s instrument of authority, while others had acquired NAB’s accreditation under questionable arrangements.

Some of the unaccredited institutions mentioned in the report include Atlantic International University, Honolulu, Hawaii, Dayspring Christian University of Mississippi and local affiliates in the Global Centre for Transformational Leadership and Pan African Clergy Council.

Others are Almeda College/university, Atlanta, GA; European-American University, Commonwealth of Dominica and affiliates in Lagos, Nigeria, American Century University and Albuquerque.

 The rest are Thomas A-Bucket University Canterbury, Kent, UK, with affiliates in  Pan African Mission Association, Lagos, Nigeria, and African Institute of Technology, Nigeria, Swiss Management Center (SMC), Zurich, Switzerland, University of Dublin, California and the Commonwealth University and the London Graduate School.

It was therefore not a surprise, according to the report, that the recent revelations by the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Education, Winneba that 61 percent of teachers in tertiary institutions in Ghana were unqualified to teach in such institutions.

For instance, to buttress the University of Education VC’s claim, the report said over 30 doctorate degree holders in Ghana were received from three institutions with questionable backgrounds.

In this regard, the researchers expressed worry that the canker has eaten very deep into the fabric of the Ghanaian educational system.
 
As a result of that, the report noted products coming out of Ghanaian tertiary institutions struggle to find their feet in the workforce.

The findings of the research further noted that Ghanaian doctoral aspirants were being fleeced around the world with questionable qualifications which was not going to help the development discourse of the country in anyway.

And to fight this accreditation challenges, the report recommended among other things like, forging functional links with other national/international accrediting bodies for the purposes of verification.
 
It also suggested  a mentoring process with the well-established universities in Ghana—University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for the purposes of mentoring and supervising genuine online educational programs for quality assurance.