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Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Prof. Michael Ayamga-Adongo, has defended Deputy Health Minister Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah as she faces scrutiny from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) over her professorial title.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Tuesday, August 19, Prof. Ayamga-Adongo said the controversy arises from differences between foreign and local academic systems. He urged GTEC to focus on genuine abuses rather than officials whose titles were legitimately conferred abroad.
“I don’t think the Deputy Minister wants to beat the system. It is just that she comes from a system that described her as a professor, and she is bringing it here. What is not helping her case is trying to project it as if it is equivalent to what happens here. Was she a professor in the United States? Yes. Can she hold herself as a professor, maybe outside? Yes, but not in the university here. These are the intricacies of the issue,” he said.
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He added that while GTEC has a duty to safeguard Ghana’s academic framework, it should not unduly target officials whose foreign titles may differ in interpretation.
GTEC has, however, cautioned Dr Ayensu-Danquah against presenting herself as a professor in Ghana. In a letter to the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, the Commission requested that she provide documentary proof of her professorial appointment by August 11, 2025.
Her legal team, led by David K. Ametefe, argued that she was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Surgery by the University of Utah in the United States and insisted that GTEC had no authority to demand evidence of appointments made outside Ghana.
But GTEC maintained that documents submitted contained inconsistencies. A letter from the University of Utah, signed by Prof. W. Bradford Rockwell, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Surgery, confirmed that Dr Ayensu-Danquah was appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, not an Assistant Professor as claimed.
The Commission explained that the omission of the word “Adjunct” was misleading, noting that the role is a non-tenure track position which, under Ghana’s academic system, is equivalent to a part-time lecturer, not a senior lecturer or full professor.
Meanwhile, Dr Ayensu-Danquah’s lawyers have criticised GTEC’s correspondence and issued a 14-day ultimatum demanding justification for questioning her academic credentials.
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