Dr Kwame Dattey graduated from the University of Ghana with an upper second-class bachelor’s degree – BA (Hons) in Sociology with Political Science in 1982. He also holds a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Administration and Policy Studies (1992) from McGill University, Canada. In November 2018, he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree by University of Groningen, Netherlands after successfully defending his thesis on the Influence of Accreditation on Quality Assurance in Ghanaian Universities.
Dr Dattey began his professional career as a university administrator in his alma mater after the mandatory National Service with the Ghana Cocoa Board and a brief stint as a Teaching Assistant at the Sociology Department in the University of Ghana. He served on various Boards and Committees of the university as Secretary, notable of which were the Board of Graduate Studies, Scholarships Committee and as the Administrative Secretary of the Institute of Adult Education, now the School of Continuing Education. While in the service of the University of Ghana, he was granted permission to assist the then Koforidua Polytechnic and later, the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) to establish their respective administrative structures.
In the year 2003, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) as a result of which he retired voluntarily from the services of University of Ghana. He served continuously with the Board for fifteen years until he retired compulsorily at the end of July, 2018. Some of his notable achievements with the Board are listed below:
- Streamlining the structures and procedures of the Board including creation of standing committees to oversee specialized functions
- Expanding and departmentalizing the secretariat of the Board to efficiently implement the Boards policies and decisions
- Initiating biennial stakeholders’ meetings to educate and share information with the public on accreditation and quality assurance issues and measures
- Leading the processes and procedures leading to the assessment and chartering of four public university colleges and five private university colleges
- Supervising the assessment processes leading to the implementation of government policy to upgrade all (17 then) Nursing Training Colleges to tertiary education status
- Supervising the assessment processes leading to the upgrading of all 38 public and 3 private Teacher Training Colleges to tertiary education status
- Expansion of accredited tertiary education institutions to include professional training institutions such as the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Ghana Institute of Journalism, National Film and Television Institute and the Kofi Annan Peace Training Institute
- Growth of accredited higher education institutions from about 10 in 2004 to 268 by the middle of 2018
- Expanding the accreditation process to cover institutional reviews and programmes of all public (as against the hitherto only private) higher education institutions
- Initiating the reassessment of Law Faculties in accredited universities/university colleges in Ghana in conjunction with the General Legal Council
- Revising the law and its legislative instrument to streamline the accreditation process and criminalizing all acts that go contrary to the process
- Putting in place an active website that is visited by interested and diverse people all over the world
- Putting in place mechanisms to invite reputable evaluators from various parts of the world to assess the programmes of universities in Ghana periodically
- Supervising the processes leading to the accreditation of academic programmes designed to make Ghanaian Colleges of Education degree awarding institutions
- Supervising the review of all 48 Colleges of Education with new instruments designed with sponsorship from the British DFID
- Making the National Accreditation Board almost financially independent of public funds
- Building capacity of the young and energetic staff of the NAB secretariat and local evaluators of the Board through attendance of conferences and workshops across the world.
Dr Dattey has three articles published in reputable journals to his credit. These are:
Dattey, K., Westerheijden, D. F. and Hofman W. H. A (2014). Impact of accreditation on public and private universities: A comparative study. Tertiary Education and Management, 20 (4), 307-319.
Dattey, K., Westerheijden, D. F. and Hofman W. H. A (2017). Impact of accreditation on improvement of operational inputs after two cycles of assessments in some Ghanaian universities. Quality in Higher Education, 23 (3), 213-229.
Dattey, K., Westerheijden, D. F. and Hofman W. H. A (2019). Compliance with accreditation measures in Ghanaian universities: students’ perspectives. Quality in Higher Education, 25(3), 304-323.