Online: The High Street Journal, November 10, 2025
Appiah Kusi Adomako urges GTEC to let affected lecturers regularise revoked PhDs through top-up dissertation programmes at accredited universities, arguing the regulator shares responsibility. He warns without remedial measures, technical universities risk losing key faculty while fairness and standards must both prevail.
Amid the crackdown of fake PhD certificates from unapproved universities, both local and foreign, the West African Regional Director of CUTS International, Appiah Kusi Adomako, is calling for a balanced remedy to preserve academic integrity and protect livelihoods
The lawyer says the recent blacklisting of unaccredited doctoral programmes by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has left many academics, especially in technical universities and business schools, in a state of anxiety.
While the Commission says it is acting to safeguard the quality of higher education, its decision has exposed a deeper dilemma. He says the bigger question is “what happens to those who earned their PhDs from institutions previously approved by the same regulator?”
The Regulator’s Burden
Appiah Kusi Adomako believes GTEC cannot completely wash its hands of responsibility. Writing in his article “When PhDs from the Black Market Invade the Town and the Gown,” Adomako argued that some of the very institutions now deemed unfit were once approved by the then National Accreditation Board, GTEC’s predecessor, and that several Ghanaians even pursued those programmes with official clearance and government bursaries.
He therefore insists that when a regulator approves a programme and later revokes that approval, it raises questions of fairness. He noted that those who pursued such degrees “in good faith have suffered what lawyers call detrimental reliance.”
The lawyer explains that detrimental reliance is “when you make a statement or give someone an assurance and the person relies on such statement or assurance, you are barred from doing things to the detriment of the person.”
According to him, the Commission has a moral and legal obligation to protect such individuals, since they acted based on public assurance.
“They trusted a public authority and made life-altering decisions on that basis. I am sure that every court of equity would estop the GTEC from taking any action to invalidate their qualification,” he explained.
A Call for Remedial Measures
The issue, he says, carries significant consequences for Ghana’s tertiary education system. A large number of those affected are faculty members in technical universities and business schools, many of whom occupy critical teaching and administrative roles.
Adomako proposes a practical middle ground that allows affected faculty members to regularise their qualifications through Ghana’s accredited universities, such as the University of Ghana, KNUST, UCC, or UPSA.
“To remedy the situation. A practical and balanced approach would be to allow affected academics to regularise their qualifications through recognised local universities such as the University of Ghana, KNUST, UCC, or UPSA. They could complete their PhDs by dissertation while remaining at their post,” he proposed.
He believes, “This would preserve institutional integrity while avoiding unnecessary human costs.”
This “PhD top-up” route, he explained, would allow the lecturers to demonstrate academic competence and meet local academic standards without uprooting their careers. “We cannot ratify what is wrong, but we can remedy it,” he told The High Street Journal.
Balancing Standards and Fairness
Amid the concerns of how the situation can lower academic standards, with some insisting that high academic standards must not be compromised, Adomako argues that the remedy he proposes would achieve both.
He maintains that his proposed remedy will uphold standards while averting social and institutional harm.
“I think that high standards need to be set; we cannot ratify what is wrong, but we can remedy it by allowing the affected to undertake a PhD programme via dissertation or by publication,” he maintained.
For him, the correction must be done with balance and fairness.
The Bottomline
For the lawyer, the unfolding saga presents GTEC with a test of both regulatory courage and fairness. The actions of GTEC in the coming weeks will determine whether the regulator can correct past errors without destroying careers and weakening institutions in the process.
The goal should not be to humiliate, but to heal, and to strengthen the integrity of our higher education system while protecting those who, in good faith, trusted the system that is now turning its back on them.
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