“So, University of Ghana, Legon, is supervising the institution. GTEC is also accreditor. So, you have double regulatory regimes. So, if they are not chartered, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing for the country,” he emphasised.

Dr Adu-Twum, who is the immediate-past Minister of Education in the Akufo-Addo Administration, made the call on an Accra-based television current affairs programme monitored by The Ghanaian Times yesterday.

He said Sections 26–28 of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) provide that the President may, on the advice of GTEC through the Minister of Education, grant a Charter to tertiary institutions, including private universities.

Pursuant to those provisions, the Ministry of Education granted a moratorium to such tertiary institutions to obtain a Presidential Charter or risk closure.

Many private universities have complied with the requirement, but others are opposed to it, insisting that the Presidential Charter ought to be optional and not an imposition on private universities.

Vindicating the argument for optional Presidential Charter, Dr Adu-Twum indicated that the law must be amended to make it optional, saying, “But they [private universities] should be nurtured; they should be supported to move in the Charter direction.”

He said there were many private entrepreneurs, including churches, that were playing critical roles in the higher education space, and they ought to be supported.

Moreover, Dr Adu-Twum said Ghana did something innovative in its affiliation regime by getting private universities to become affiliated with well-established and already chartered universities for mentorship, thus allowing the fledgling private universities to thrive.

“The point of the matter is that if you want to really reform and create access to tertiary education, you have to sit down with the private universities and look at a way that you can support them,” he underlined.