EPA Deputy CEO Defends Deputy Health Minister Over Professorial Title Controversy
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Prof. Michael Ayamga-Adongo, has defended Deputy Health Minister Dr. Grace Ayensu-Danquah amid scrutiny by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) regarding her professorial title.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Breakfast Daily on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Prof. Ayamga-Adongo attributed the controversy to differences between foreign academic systems and Ghana’s framework. He urged GTEC to focus on genuine cases of abuse rather than targeting 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.
Prof. Ayamga-Adongo maintained that while GTEC has a responsibility to safeguard Ghana’s academic space, it should prioritise cracking down on individuals who deliberately abuse the system.
Meanwhile, GTEC has formally cautioned Dr. Ayensu-Danquah against presenting herself as a professor. In a letter to the Chief of Staff, the Commission requested documentary evidence of her professorial appointment by August 11, 2025.
Her legal team, led by David K. Ametefe, responded, affirming that she had been appointed an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah in the United States. They argued that GTEC had no jurisdiction to demand proof of appointments made outside Ghana.
However, 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, clarified that Dr. Ayensu-Danquah was appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, not an Assistant Professor as claimed by her solicitors.
The Commission explained that omitting the term “Adjunct” was misleading, adding that the role is a non-tenure track position equivalent to a part-time lecturer in Ghana’s system, not a senior lecturer or professor.
Dr. Ayensu-Danquah’s lawyers have since criticised GTEC’s stance and issued a 14-day ultimatum demanding the Commission justify its challenge to her title.
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