The University of Ghana chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG-UG) has warned that poor remuneration is making it increasingly difficult for Ghanaian universities to attract highly qualified academics, particularly professionals with PhDs and specialised industry experience.

UTAG-UG President, Dr Jerry Joe Harrison, said improving the conditions of service for lecturers and strengthening universities' capacity to train their own academics would provide a more sustainable solution to faculty shortages than allowing the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to take over recruitment.

Speaking on Accra-based Citi News, Dr Harrison said the remuneration offered to university lecturers was making academic careers unattractive to professionals in specialised and lucrative fields.

“If you are being paid, you know, the kind of money that lecturers are being paid, which lawyer would want to leave their law practice, go pursue a PhD, and then come back to the classroom and come and teach?” he asked on Wednesday, September 9.

He said the challenge extended beyond the legal profession to other disciplines, including medicine, where professional and practical experience is an important component of academic expertise.

Dr Harrison said while universities must maintain high standards in recruiting faculty, rigid academic requirements could make it difficult to fill vacancies in specialised disciplines where PhD holders are limited.

He argued that professional experience should also be recognised, particularly in fields where practitioners may be reluctant to abandon established and better-paying careers for academia.

His comments come amid UTAG-UG’s ongoing criticism of GTEC over its decision to advertise faculty positions for various public higher education institutions.

UTAG has maintained that the recruitment of academic staff should remain the responsibility of individual universities and their established academic and governance structures.

Dr Harrison said if GTEC is concerned about universities struggling to recruit qualified academics, it should support institutions to develop the capacity to produce more PhD holders in areas where expertise is scarce.

“As an advisor, if an institution is having difficulty recruiting, you could easily help the institution to set up a PhD programme, through which they can channel people who can then come back and help the institution,” he said.

According to him, such an approach would provide a longer-term solution by allowing universities to train academics in specialised areas and build a pipeline of qualified faculty.

He added that universities already assess national development needs when determining their research and training priorities and could similarly identify areas where additional academic capacity is required.

“Nothing is wrong with that,” Dr Harrison said, arguing that institutions facing shortages in particular disciplines could be supported to develop programmes that produce the expertise needed by universities and the wider economy.

He maintained that GTEC should concentrate on its regulatory and advisory mandate rather than assuming responsibility for recruiting academic staff.

“We must be guided by the requirements, we must be guided by the availability, we must be guided by the quality of the people that we are receiving,” he said.