Tertiary institutions cannot be fully autonomous from government as long as they depend on government funding and tax payers’ money, President John Mahama has said.
President Mahama however assured that, government’s interference in the affairs of public tertiary institutions would not extend beyond issues of funding to academia.
Responding to a question on the matter at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC) evening encounter series for presidential candidates on Wednesday, he explained that the public tertiary institutions could not benefit from government funding and not be accountable.
“I believe that autonomy in intellectual institution or academia is important; but in our circumstances, government funds heavily the universities, so definitely you cannot take public funds and say that you don’t want government to interfere.”
“I won’t come and tell you what to teach the students, I won’t come and interfere in a seminar at the university; but if you take money from the tax payers, I want to know how you spent it,” President Mahama said.
On the other hand, he indicated that “where you have absolute autonomy, it is because universities raise their own money.”
“They are entitled to autonomy; but in our circumstances of today, it is a partnership with government and that partnership will continue for some time until we reach some stage where they are able to exist on their own.”
Using the the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) as an example, President Mahama said, “GIMPA raises its own funds, GIMPA pays its own lecturers, GIMPA has nothing to do with us. Me too I don’t go and interfere, I don’t ask them anything.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
