The Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana is set to host a series of high-powered roundtable discussions on academic freedom in August 2022.

The discussions will take place in three separate but interconnected parts on the 11th, 19th and 25th at the Great Hall.

The overarching theme for the roundtable discussions is “Academic Freedom and the African University: Contemporary Issues in Ghana’s Higher Education”, and will bring together leading scholars as well as students of the University of Ghana to deliberate on a myriad of issues facing higher education in Ghana.

According to the organisers, this has arisen out of a plethora of reasons “externally caused and internally generated such as the global neoliberal marketisation of higher education and policy incoherence within the education sector”. In all, there will be 15 speakers in three evening conversations. The programme is also expected to offer an enduring platform for critical unpacking of the multi-layered sources of the current challenges facing the Ghanaian university and to generate a repertoire of resources to apply against threats to academic freedom and university autonomy. 

In a statement issued by the University on August 3, 2022, it noted that: “considering that issues about higher education are not or should not be of interest to the university community alone, the panels and the issues for discussion have been packaged in a way as to involve the general public as well”.

Discussants will address a variety of sub-themes including; Coloniality in the Structures of Higher Education in Ghana; Academic Freedom and Academic Sovereignty; Decolonising Academic Freedom; Decolonising the Law Faculties; Africanisation and Curriculum Revision; Education, Gender, and Development and African Feminism and Academic Freedom and many more.

The event will also show a film documentary on Academic Freedom.

The programme will be available in a hybrid format to allow for both in-person and online participation.