GTEC suspends processing of accreditation and other requests from UCC over VC’s compulsory retirement dispute

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission has decided that with immediate effect, it will not process any request from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in respect of accreditation, salaries (government subventions), GETFund support, Book and Research Allowances, Post Retirement Contracts, Financial Clearance for Recruitment and any other related requests.

According to the commission, until there was full compliance with the directive for the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Johnson Nyarko Boampong, to proceed on compulsory retirement, it will not process any request from UCC.

In a letter dated September 22, 2025, addressed to the Registrar of the UCC referencing an earlier directive dated September 19, 2025, the commission indicated it was compelled to issue the new directive due to the fact that the Governing Council of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) had been restrained by an injunction of the High Court, Cape Coast, since 8th October 2024, from taking any action on Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong’s appointment as Vice-Chancellor.

Following the confusion at the UCC over Prof. Boampong’s contract extension and developments in relation to his retirement age, GTEC last week directed that the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Denis Worlanyo Aheto, should step in to act in the interim.

GTEC also requested that the Governing Council of the university postpone the appointment of a substantive Vice-Chancellor until the conclusion of a high court case regarding the retirement age of Prof.  Boampong and the contract extension.

The move by GTEC followed information that Prof. Boampong was still in office as Vice-Chancellor of the university post the compulsory retirement age of sixty (60) years, contrary to the provisions of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

In the GTEC letter, a copy of which has been seen by Graphic Online and dated September 19, 2025, signed by the Acting Deputy Director-General of GTEC, Prof Augustine Ocloo on behalf of the Director-General, addressed to Prof Boampong and copied to eight other people including the Minister of Education, the Chancellor and the Chairman of the UCC Governing Council, GTEC indicated that Article 199 (1) of the constitution states that, “A public officer shall, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, retire from the public service on attaining the age of sixty years.”

It stated, “again, the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, being an office established under Section 7(1) of the University of Cape Coast Act, 1992 (PNDCL 278) is a public office under the meaning and intendment of Article 199(1), hence anyone acting in the office of the Vice-Chancellor is presumptively mandated to proceed on compulsory retirement upon attaining 60 years.”

Regarding the tenure of the Vice-Chancellor, it said Statute 8.2 of the University of Cape Coast Statutes 2016 states that:  “The Vice-Chancellor shall hold office for an initial term of four years. The appointment may be renewed for a further term of up to three years if that is not beyond the statutory retiring age of 60.”