Ofori
University of Education, Winneba (UEW) lifts the veil on Associate Professor Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai’s promotion – all thanks to a Right‑to‑Information (RTI) request.
When Mr Kwame Simpe Ofori filed an RTI on 27 October 2025 asking for the nitty‑gritty of how UEW handles academic promotions, the university didn’t hold back. In a detailed letter dated 7 November 2025, Registrar Mrs Ekua Abedi‑Boafo laid out the whole story, from the promotion criteria right down to the paperwork behind Abdulai’s name change.
Promotion rules at a glance
– Lecturer → Senior Lecturer: five publications, at least one in an international journal.
– Senior Lecturer → Associate Professor: seven publications, two of them international.
Timeline of Abdulai’s climb
– He first applied for Associate Professor on 11 April 2017.
– The promotion was back‑dated to that same day, but the Governing Council only gave its final nod on 12 September 2022.
How the board decided
The file went to three external assessors. Two gave the thumbs‑up, one said no. The university’s Appointments and Promotions Board initially rejected the bid on 10 May 2019, but after an appeal the board reversed its decision on 13 May 2022 and recommended promotion.
A name, a gazette, a record
When he joined UEW he was known as Ahmed Murtala Abdulai. A gazetted name change on 2 March 2017 officially turned him into Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai, and the university updated its files accordingly.
Foreign credentials – no paper trail
UEW admitted it has no documentary proof that Abdulai’s MA and Ed.D. were validated by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) or its predecessor, the National Accreditation Board. The registrar noted that such validation wasn’t a requirement when he was hired.
The university’s response, complete with the full list of Abdulai’s publications (Appendix II), was copied to the Minister for Education, the Chairman of UEW’s Governing Council and other officials.
This disclosure comes amid a broader public push for transparency in academic appointments. A separate citizen’s RTI to GTEC’s board also demanded full details of the Director‑General’s qualifications, underscoring the growing demand for clear records on academic leadership .
Stakeholders are still poring over the documents, and we’ll keep you posted as the conversation evolves.