Mountcrest University College to start Doctor of Philosophy in law

Mountcrest University College (MCU), the first private university to offer law programme, is to establish a Doctor of Philosophy(Ph.D.) Programme in law, to be jointly run with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) to offer higher degrees to law students.

Ghana currently has no institution offering Ph.D. in law and when materialised, the MCU-GIMPA Ph.D. programme in law, would be the first of its kind in law education Ghana, many years after the establishment of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana and the Ghana School of Law, Makola.

Mr Kwaku Ansa-Asare, Founder and Rector of the School, who announced this at the maiden congregation and fifth matriculation of the school at Larteh, said the quest for legal education at the Ph.D. level is a necessity to maintain a high legal professional standard and competence.

So far, the curriculum for the joint MCU-GIMPA Ph.D. law programme, under the direction of Professor Paulo Gallizi of the Fordham University Law School, New York, has been submitted to the National Accreditation Board (NAB) for accreditation.

He said given the fact that Ghana was the first nation in Africa South of the Sahara to introduce legal education since 1958, yet has no institution to offer its legal students higher degrees is a “national embarrassment and a deficiency which must be corrected without any further delay”.

Mr Ansa-Asare, who is also a former Director of the Ghana School of Law, said the inability of Ghana to expand its legal education after 57 years was a matter that should engage serious attention of the government, the law faculties and the Ghana School of Law, the Ghana Bar Association, the bench, financial institutions and the private sector.

He expressed the hope that the appropriate authorities would consider the issue favourably, adding that, Nigeria which introduced legal education in 1962, now boasts of 30 universities running doctoral programmes in law whiles Ghanaian law students have to look outside for such degrees.

Mr Ansa-Asare therefore made a passionate appeal to the NAB to fast track the accreditation process.

In all 83 students out of the first batch of 149 law students graduated with Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degrees awarded by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology (KNUST) whiles 409 students were matriculated.

Ms Winifred Banner-Williams, the only student who had first class took three of six awards including the best graduating student and received a full scholarship to study at the Ghana School of Law from the Founder and his wife among other prizes.