GTEC (Ghana Tertiary Education Commission): Accreditation Requirements and What Changed from NAB and NCTE

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) is Ghana’s statutory regulator for tertiary education. It was created by the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), which merged the former National Accreditation Board (NAB) and the former National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) into a single commission. The Act received Presidential Assent on 21 August 2020, and GTEC’s Governing Board was appointed and inaugurated on 25 November 2020.

The operative rule, and the one everything else on this page hangs off, is section 19(1) of Act 1023: “A tertiary education institution shall not operate or run a programme without accreditation by the Board.” Accreditation in Ghana is not a quality badge an institution adds once it is running — it is the legal precondition for running at all, and it is granted separately for the institution, for each programme, and for each campus.

This page sets out what GTEC actually requires: the merger and what carried over from NAB and NCTE, the four-rung approval ladder from Institutional Authorization to Presidential Charter, the statutory timelines and thresholds, the published fee schedule, and how to check whether a named institution or programme is genuinely accredited today.

What changed when GTEC replaced NAB and NCTE

This is the single point Ghanaian institutions and applicants most often get wrong, so it is worth being precise about what the statute does and does not do.

Two Acts were repealed, not amended. Section 39(1) of Act 1023 repeals the National Council for Tertiary Education Act, 1993 (Act 454) and the National Accreditation Board Act, 2007 (Act 744). NAB and NCTE no longer exist as legal entities. Correspondence, certificates and guidance still circulating under those names describe bodies that were dissolved in 2020.

But everything lawfully done under them survives. Section 39(2) is a savings provision: Regulations, notices, orders, directions “or any other act lawfully made or done” under the repealed enactments, and in force immediately before Act 1023 commenced, “shall be considered to have been made or done under this Act and shall continue to have effect until reviewed, cancelled or terminated.” In practice this means an accreditation granted by NAB did not lapse on 21 August 2020. It runs to its own expiry, and it is GTEC — not NAB — that now reviews, varies or revokes it.

Staff, assets and litigation transferred wholesale. Section 40(3) transfers the assets, rights, obligations and liabilities vested in NAB and NCTE, and the persons employed by both, to the Commission; proceedings taken by or against either body may be continued by or against GTEC. Section 40(4) transfers their bank balances.

The genuinely new obligation is the charter deadline. Section 40(1) requires an affiliated institution already in existence when Act 1023 came into force to meet the conditions for the award of a Charter within four years. Section 40(2) allows a further two years where an institution cannot meet the requirements in that window but “demonstrates sufficient cause of preparing towards a Charter.” For a private university college that had been operating indefinitely under a mentor university’s affiliation, that converted an open-ended arrangement into a dated one. Whether and how GTEC has enforced or extended that deadline for specific institutions is an administrative matter that is not settled by the text of the Act; confirm the current position directly with GTEC rather than inferring it from the four-year clock.

Act 1023 is bigger than GTEC. The Act is a single statute establishing five regulatory bodies in six Parts: GTEC (Part One), the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (Part Two), the National Teaching Council (Part Three), the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (Part Four), and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (Part Five), with common administrative and financial provisions in Part Six. GTEC’s remit stops at tertiary education; pre-tertiary standards and inspection sit with NaSIA and NaCCA, and TVET sits with CTVET.

What GTEC regulates, and the categories it recognises

Section 38 of Act 1023 defines a “tertiary education institution” as a university, university college, technical university, post-secondary diploma awarding institution, a tertiary technical and vocational training institution specified in the Third Schedule, and a post-secondary professional training institution.

Separately, GTEC’s published classification sorts tertiary institutions into eight categories, and the category an applicant claims determines which questionnaire, fee band and standards apply. In GTEC’s own definitions:

• University — designed for advanced instruction and research in several branches of learning, conferring degrees in various faculties.
• University College — affiliated to a university, teaching programmes approved by that university, whose degrees, diplomas and certificates are awarded by the parent university.
• Polytechnic — higher or further education across a broad range of subjects, especially technical or vocational.
• College — further or higher education in the liberal arts or professional studies, sometimes part of a university.
• School — devoted to a special branch of higher education (School of Education, School of Law, School of Medicine).
• Institute — advanced courses in the professions, the arts, or science and technology.
• Academy — study or training in a special field (Military Academy, Maritime Academy).
• Tutorial College — prepares students to sit the examinations of a university or recognised professional body.

Getting the category wrong is not cosmetic. An institution cannot use the nomenclature of a category until GTEC’s requirements for that category are met, and a name is cleared by the Commission before anything else in the process starts.

The approval ladder: authorization, accreditation, re-accreditation, charter

GTEC publishes a Road Map to Accreditation that sets out the procedure and the working-day service standards for each stage. Two cautions before using it: the version GTEC currently publishes carries a revision date of 10 April 2019, which predates GTEC itself and cites the Tertiary Institutions (Establishment and Accreditation) Regulations, 2010 (L.I. 1984) as the appeal route; and the document states plainly that “every application to GTEC for any service is deemed complete upon the payment of an appropriate fee by the applicant.” The clocks below start at payment, not at submission.

Stage 1 — Letter of intent and name clearance

A promoter writes to GTEC with a brief blueprint of the proposed institution: type of institution, programme levels and years of completion, area of interest, the proposed affiliate institution that will award certificates to its graduates, and up to three proposed names in order of preference for clearance by the Commission.

Stage 2 — Site clearance

Once the name is approved, the proposed location must be approved. GTEC’s site checklist asks whether noise intrudes from adjoining activities; whether adjoining properties and the educational facility would harm each other; whether there is pedestrian and vehicular access and dedicated parking for staff and students; whether the location is zoned for educational purposes; total available land size; and whether the premises will be shared with other occupants. A committee of the Board visits the site after the fee is paid, and the decision is communicated within 10 working days of the visit report. Proposed nursing training institutions must additionally obtain clearance from the Nurses and Midwifery Council of Ghana.

Stage 3 — Institutional Authorization

The applicant completes questionnaire GTEC/INFO A.1; once vetted, GTEC usually requires eight additional copies, bills the fee, and invites the applicant to meet the relevant committee of the Board.

Authorization has a three-year duration, renewable on expiration. What it permits and forbids is the part applicants misread. Under Authorization an institution may continue assembling academic resources (finance, staff, library, physical facilities, equipment), finalise syllabuses, continue developing physical facilities, get itself affiliated to a chartered university that will examine and certify its students, and apply to renew if the three years lapse before accreditation completes. It may not advertise and may not admit students. An Authorized institution is not an accredited one.

Stage 4 — Institutional Accreditation

By this stage construction must be complete and facilities fit for teaching and learning. The applicant submits questionnaire GTEC/INFO A.2 and pays. Then:

• GTEC experts assess physical and library facilities within 60 working days after payment.
• Expert reports go to the institution for response; a Board committee then visits; the visit report goes back for a further response.
• The committee’s recommendation is tabled at the Board’s next meeting — usually 30 to 90 working days.
• Total duration for Institutional Accreditation is usually within 120 working days.

Three conditions attach that are easy to miss: the applicant must submit a financial guarantee or bond from a bank or insurance company (before the recommendation for Programme Accreditation); a private tertiary institution must hold a signed, valid MOU with an identified mentor institution, local or abroad; and Institutional Accreditation is only communicated to an institution upon the grant of at least one programme accreditation. Campus accreditation follows the same process.

Stage 5 — Programme Accreditation

Questionnaire GTEC/INFO A.3, vetted on submission; if satisfactory the institution supplies five additional copies and pays within 30 working days. A Panel of Assessors commissioned by the Board assesses the programme within 60 working days of payment. Panel reports go to GTEC, are forwarded to the institution within 21 working days, the institution responds within 21 working days, and the Panel Chair reports to the Board within 14 working days. The Board’s committee recommendation is tabled at the next Board meeting (usually 30–90 working days), and the decision is communicated within 21 working days after the Board meeting.

Stage 6 — Re-accreditation

Both institutional and programme re-accreditation applications should commence one year before the existing accreditation expires — questionnaires GTEC/INFO A.5 and A.6 respectively. Institutional re-accreditation additionally requires a written account of developments since the last visit, and the financial guarantee or bond and mentor MOU requirements repeat. Institutional re-accreditation usually takes 180 working days, longer than first accreditation, which is why a one-year lead is the published expectation rather than a suggestion.

Stage 7 — Presidential Charter

A Charter is the end state: under section 26 the President may, on GTEC’s advice given through the Minister, grant a Charter enabling an institution to award its own certificates, diplomas or degrees. Section 27 sets out the effect — the institution becomes a body corporate, may develop and mount new academic programmes subject to GTEC review, may establish campuses and constituent colleges, and may award degrees including honorary degrees. Constituent colleges and campuses may not share premises with incompatible businesses.

GTEC’s Road Map lists the primary indicators an applicant must already satisfy before the self-evaluation report is even reviewed. The hard, countable ones:

• The institution must have operated under mentorship for not less than 10 years.
• The college or its parent institution must own the physical facilities.
• At least 60% of each stratum of the pyramidal academic-staff structure must conform to GTEC norms.
• At least 50% of academic staff must hold terminal degrees.
• All Deans and Heads of Department must be at least of the rank of Senior Lecturer.
• Staff-to-student ratio must not exceed 60% beyond the GTEC norm.
• A functional Council or Board, a functional organogram, and a functional SRC.

Alongside these sit qualitative indicators: financial sustainability, quality assurance, number of publications in the last three years, funding and budget allocations, student performance and satisfaction, physical and information-access resources, institutional growth trends, extension and community service, learning outcomes, attrition and academic staff turnover rates, stability of headship, entry requirements, mandatory courses, tracer studies and responsiveness to student complaints.

The self-evaluation is only the first stage. After it, the Board commences a comprehensive review covering physical and library facilities, financial sustainability, governance and management, audit reports, annual reports, and an appraisal report the mentoring institution must submit directly to GTEC. A joint committee of the Quality Assurance Committee and the Accreditation Committee then assesses the application within 180 days and recommends to the Board, weighing the period under mentorship (not less than ten years), governance structure, quality of teaching and research, and financial, material and teaching resources. GTEC then recommends to the President through the Minister; the President decides.

If you are refused

At every stage the Road Map gives the same route: appeal within 30 working days to the Minister responsible for Education, as specified in the Tertiary Institutions (Establishment and Accreditation) Regulations, 2010 (L.I. 1984), section 28.

GTEC fee schedule

GTEC publishes its approved charges on its service charges page. The figures below are as published there at the time of writing; the page is headed “Upward Review of GTEC Service Charges” and does not carry a visible effective date, so confirm the current schedule before budgeting. GTEC notes that the GH₵50.00 application processing fee is already incorporated into the relevant fee items, so no separate processing fee is charged for those services.

Item	Category	Approved fee (GH₵)
Institutional Accreditation – new institution	Universities / University Colleges	42,550.00
Institutional Accreditation – new institution	Tutorial Colleges / Colleges of Education / Nursing Training / Agric Colleges	31,479.00
Institutional Re-Accreditation	Universities / University Colleges	25,050.00
Institutional Re-Accreditation	Tutorial Colleges / Colleges of Education / Nursing Training / Agric Colleges	18,450.00
Programme accreditation – regular programmes	—	13,929.00
Programme accreditation – online and distance learning	—	Special fees apply
Programme Accreditation Extension	—	13,879.00
Institutional Authorization	—	10,050.00
Academic audit	—	12,050.00
5-year cyclical review / Charter review	—	77,630.00
Verification fee	—	2,636.00
Site inspection	Within Accra / outside Accra	2,636.00 / 6,515.00
Certificate — programme	—	3,879.00
Certificate — institutional / authorization / institutional registration	—	6,465.00
Certificate — Charter	—	12,930.00
Evaluation of certificate	Foreign certificate	307.00
Evaluation of certificate	Local certificate (also bulk, per certificate)	120.00
Change of name on a certificate	—	250.00
Database listing / institutional registration	Foreign	Cedi equivalent of £3,600.00
Application processing fee	—	50.00

Two budgeting points that follow from the process rather than the table. Fees recur: the accreditation fee and the certificate fee are separate line items, and the five-year cyclical review at GH₵77,630.00 is the largest single charge an established institution will meet. And because every application is deemed complete only on payment, a delayed payment does not pause the process — it prevents it from starting.

Foreign institutions: registration, not accreditation

An agent of a recognised foreign tertiary institution that recruits students and facilitates access to that parent institution’s qualifications is registered, not accredited. GTEC’s Institutional Registration route covers an applicant seeking to recruit students or operate in Ghana on behalf of a foreign partner where delivery is solely by post-delivery, internet (e-learning or online) or other ICT means.

The registration conditions are specific, and several of them are refusal grounds in practice:

• The source of instruction for the programme of study is outside Ghana.
• The foreign institution is recognised by a competent accrediting body in its home country, and its programmes are recognised and quality assured by the appropriate quality assurance body there.
• The programmes are certified as meeting priority areas of manpower need in Ghana as determined by the Board.
• The curriculum is assessed and made comparable to similar programmes delivered locally, and may be required to include local content.
• Programmes must be delivered at GTEC-accredited premises or institutions only.
• Entry requirements must not fall below the GTEC minimum in Ghana.
• Programmes such as engineering, science, applied science and technology may require well-furnished laboratories or workshops and qualified technicians in Ghana to supervise practical work.

The application is questionnaire GTEC/INFO A.4, supported by the inter-institutional agreement, proof of recognition and of accreditation in the country of origin, programme details, recruitment processes, mode of delivery, the local partner’s service-delivery or recruitment centre location, and financial forecasts. GTEC sends experts to assess the local partner’s physical and library facilities, and the Institutional Visits Committee visits the local partner’s premises within 30 working days of receiving those reports. Institutional re-registration should be applied for one year before the first registration period expires.

Individual qualification recognition is a different service again: GTEC evaluates foreign and local certificates through its Credential Evaluation Management System (CEMS), at GH₵307.00 for a foreign certificate and GH₵120.00 for a local one. If you are a research office verifying a Ghanaian applicant’s degree, or a Ghanaian applicant needing a foreign degree recognised locally, CEMS — not the awarding institution’s own transcript office — is the authority Ghana treats as determinative.

How to check whether an institution or programme is actually accredited

This is the practical question most searches for “GTEC accreditation” are really asking, and the answer is a four-step check rather than a single lookup, because Ghanaian accreditation is granted at three levels that can diverge.

1. Check the institution. GTEC publishes its list of accredited institutions and programmes on gtec.edu.gh/accredited-institutions. Accreditation processing now runs through GTEC’s Accreditation Management Information System (AMIS).
2. Check the specific programme, not just the institution. Section 19(1) prohibits running a programme without accreditation, and Institutional Accreditation is only granted once at least one programme is accredited. An accredited university can and does offer programmes that are not individually accredited.
3. Check the campus. Section 19(8) is explicit: “An accreditation to a tertiary education institution is campus specific and not transferable” without the Board’s written permission. A satellite campus or learning centre of a fully accredited university is not covered by the parent campus’s accreditation. GTEC has published a standing notice naming 15 unaccredited learning centres and campuses of public universities, including learning centres of the University of Ghana, the University of Education Winneba, the University for Development Studies, Takoradi Technical University and Methodist University Ghana.
4. Check whether accreditation has expired. The same GTEC notice lists 34 institutions whose institutional accreditation has expired. “Accredited once” is not “accredited now”, and expiry is exactly what the one-year-ahead re-accreditation rule exists to prevent.

Section 19(6) puts a matching duty on the media: a media outfit must not publish an advertisement recruiting students to a tertiary institution or its courses without inspecting the institution’s and programmes’ accreditation certificates and confirming with the Commission that they are genuine. Inspecting a certificate is not sufficient on its own — the statute requires verification with GTEC.

Enforcement: what GTEC can do, and the penalties

Act 1023 gives GTEC graduated powers, and they are unusually sharp for an education regulator.

• Effect of accreditation (s.22). Only an institution issued with an Accreditation Certificate may commence business by mobilising academic resources and by advertising and enrolling students.
• Advertising ban (s.19(5)). An institution that has not been granted accreditation and issued a certificate shall not advertise or cause to be published, in any form or medium, information to attract potential students to enrol or register.
• Variation and revocation (s.23). The Board may vary a certificate where necessary in light of tertiary education policy, and may revoke it where the institution is not functioning effectively, is in breach of the terms of the accreditation, where revocation is necessary having regard to policy, or where the institution acts contrary to the Commission’s rules.
• Closure (s.24). The Commission may move to close an institution where its location or operations are detrimental to the welfare of students and staff, where it operates below the minimum acceptable standard, where its continued existence is against the public interest, where it runs programmes or operates on a campus other than those approved for accreditation, where it operates contrary to the terms of its accreditation, where it operates without the requisite accreditation, or where it acts contrary to the Commission’s rules. The Commission first formally notifies the institution to rectify.
• Offences (s.36(1)). Operating an unaccredited institution or programme, advertising one, failing to register an institution, refusing an information request, denying access to records, obstructing an authorised person, knowingly providing false information, or publishing media advertising for an institution without institutional or programme accreditation, is an offence. The stated penalty on summary conviction is a fine of not less than 10,000 and not more than 20,000 penalty units, or imprisonment of not less than 15 and not more than 20 years, or both. The Act expresses the fine in penalty units, not cedis; the cedi value depends on the prevailing statutory value of a penalty unit set under the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459) and its amendments, so do not quote a cedi figure without checking that value for the date concerned.
• Mandatory closure (s.36(2)). Separately from any conviction, a tertiary education institution that operates without the requisite accreditation “shall be closed down.”
• Charter revocation (s.28). The President may revoke or vary a Charter on GTEC’s recommendation through the Minister, only after the institution has been heard and inspected. Notice is published in the Gazette and a national daily; the institution ceases to be a tertiary education institution one year after publication. Critically, revocation does not affect the validity of academic awards made before the revocation (s.28(5)) — a point that matters directly to anyone evaluating a Ghanaian credential from an institution that later lost its Charter. The Minister may appoint another institution to administer the affected institution for the ensuing year to protect students and staff.

Why this matters outside Ghana

For research administrators, credential evaluators and international partnership offices, Ghana’s regime has three features worth carrying into practice.

First, the unit of accreditation is institution + programme + campus, not institution alone. A due-diligence check that confirms only that “the university is accredited by GTEC” has answered one third of the question. The same layered structure appears in other national regulators — compare Nigeria’s National Universities Commission, which likewise approves programmes separately from institutions, and Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission.

Second, the savings-and-transition pattern is generalisable. When a national regulator is merged or replaced, the question is never simply “which body exists now” but “what did the repealing statute save.” Ghana’s section 39(2) preserved NAB-era decisions; the Australian Tertiary Education Commission was created alongside, not in place of, the Australian Research Council. Read the repeal and savings clause before assuming a prior approval lapsed.

Third, award validity and institutional status are separate questions. Section 28(5) protects awards made before a Charter revocation. An institution can be closed, delisted or stripped of its Charter without invalidating the degrees it lawfully conferred beforehand — which is why the date of award, not the institution’s status today, is the operative fact in a credential check. That distinction is a routine research integrity issue whenever qualifications underpin eligibility for funding or appointment.

Ghana’s wider research-administration landscape sits alongside GTEC rather than under it: research funding runs through the Ghana National Research Fund, and clinical research approvals through the Ghana FDA’s clinical trial authorization pathway. Regionally, Kenya’s NACOSTI offers a useful contrast: there, accreditation attaches to research ethics committees rather than to teaching institutions. Broader compliance context sits on the integrity and compliance pillar.

Frequently asked questions

Is GTEC the same as the National Accreditation Board?

No. GTEC replaced it. The National Accreditation Board Act, 2007 (Act 744) was repealed by section 39(1) of the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023), which also repealed the National Council for Tertiary Education Act, 1993 (Act 454). Both bodies were merged into GTEC, whose Governing Board was inaugurated on 25 November 2020.

Are accreditations issued by NAB still valid?

Yes, unless GTEC has since reviewed, cancelled or terminated them. Section 39(2) of Act 1023 saves anything lawfully made or done under the repealed Acts and in force at commencement, and continues its effect under Act 1023. It does not extend an accreditation past its own expiry date.

How long does GTEC accreditation take?

Per GTEC’s published Road Map, Institutional Accreditation usually completes within 120 working days and institutional re-accreditation usually takes 180 working days. Within those, expert assessment happens within 60 working days of payment and Board consideration usually adds 30–90 working days. Every clock starts at payment, because an application is deemed complete only when the fee is paid.

How much does GTEC accreditation cost?

On GTEC’s published schedule, Institutional Accreditation for a new university or university college is GH₵42,550.00 and GH₵31,479.00 for tutorial colleges, colleges of education, nursing training and agricultural colleges; institutional re-accreditation is GH₵25,050.00 and GH₵18,450.00 respectively; a regular programme is GH₵13,929.00; and Institutional Authorization is GH₵10,050.00. Certificates are billed separately. The published page does not show an effective date, so verify the current schedule with GTEC before relying on these figures.

Can an institution admit students while its accreditation is pending?

No. Under Institutional Authorization an institution may assemble resources and build facilities but may neither advertise nor admit students. Section 19(5) of Act 1023 separately prohibits an unaccredited institution from advertising to attract students, and section 22 makes advertising and enrolling students a consequence of holding an Accreditation Certificate, not a precursor to it.

Does my university’s accreditation cover its learning centre or satellite campus?

No. Section 19(8) makes accreditation campus specific and non-transferable without the Board’s written permission, and section 24(1)(d) makes operating on an unapproved campus a ground for closure. GTEC maintains a published notice of unaccredited learning centres, which at the time of writing names 15 such centres and campuses of public universities.

What does a Presidential Charter give an institution?

Under section 27 of Act 1023, a chartered institution becomes a body corporate, may develop and mount new academic programmes subject to GTEC review, may establish campuses and constituent colleges to prescribed standards, and may award its own degrees, including honorary degrees. Before that, its students are examined and certified by its mentor or affiliate university.

How long must an institution operate under mentorship before applying for a Charter?

GTEC’s Road Map sets a minimum of 10 years under mentorship as a primary indicator, and the Board’s joint committee weighs that period again when assessing the application. Section 40(1) of Act 1023 separately required affiliated institutions already in existence at commencement to meet Charter conditions within four years, extendable by two years on sufficient cause.

How do I get a foreign degree recognised in Ghana?

Through GTEC’s Credential Evaluation Management System (CEMS). The published fee is GH₵307.00 for a foreign certificate and GH₵120.00 for a local certificate, with GH₵250.00 for a change of name on a certificate.

Who is GTEC accountable to?

GTEC is governed by a Board established under section 11 of Act 1023 and led by a Director-General appointed under section 13. Appeals against accreditation decisions go to the Minister responsible for Education within 30 working days, per L.I. 1984 section 28, and the President grants, varies or revokes Charters on GTEC’s advice given through that Minister.

Primary sources

• Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) — full text as published by GTEC. Sections 19–40 are Part One (GTEC).
• GTEC Road Map to Accreditation — procedure, questionnaires and working-day standards (revision date 10 April 2019).
• GTEC service charges — the approved fee tables.
• GTEC accreditation and institutional classification.
• GTEC list of accredited institutions and programmes and AMIS.
• GTEC publications — including the guidelines for affiliation, for introducing new programmes, for joint awards, and the distance-learning accreditation packs.