Deputy Health Minister Ayensu-Danquah has accepted she is not a prof – GTEC boss

The Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, has said that the brouhaha surrounding the academic title of Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, the Deputy Minister of Health, has been resolved.

Speaking in a recent interview on TV3, Prof Jinapor indicated that Dr Ayensu-Danquah has accepted that she is not a professor and that she cannot use the title.

He pointed out that the deputy minister dropping the title does not affect her achievements in any way.

“First of all, the honourable minister’s case has been resolved. It was unfortunate, and I say that it was due to miscommunication. I’ve always said that she’s a very accomplished person, beyond even politics. In terms of her private career, she’s somebody that, as a nation, we should be proud of.

“To some of us who have girls as children, she is somebody that we look up to,” the GTEC boss said.

He added, “The issue was resolved. I mean, closed-door, okay? We had a private conversation, and I think, as I said, it’s been resolved… She’s not a professor – there’s no dispute about it. She’s not a professor, and that does not affect her integrity relative to what she’s done to society. I believe, based on the communication that we had, she appreciates it… We have made sleeping dogs lie, so to speak.”

The GTEC boss went on to explain how the professorship title is attained, likening the title to the highest ranks in the country’s security services.

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“But unfortunate as it is, I think at the end of the day, it brings to the sphere this whole idea of ranking. I keep on saying that professorship, just like a Commissioner of Police, is a rank; it’s not a title that is attained out of academic excellence. You need to be within that industry to be able to attain that.

“Unfortunately, as it was, I think it more or less gave us an opportunity to appreciate the whole spectrum of that area of career progression. And I’ve indicated, and I want to repeat it once again, that you don’t attain that title by virtue of not being within that space. You need to have gone through the rudiments of what the architecture in that space is,” he said.

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