Technical Universities’ Senior Administrators declare indefinite nationwide strike

Senior administrators across Ghana’s technical universities are set to withdraw their services indefinitely from Wednesday, 3 December 2025, after their union accused government of reneging on a key financial commitment agreed more than a year ago.

The Technical Universities Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG) says the action follows a “blatant breach of agreement” over the non-payment of a negotiated One-Time Research Allowance, outstanding for nearly 17 months.

The shutdown is expected to freeze administrative activity across all 10 technical universities, disrupting essential functions such as:

Admissions and student records

Examinations and results processing

Finance operations, including the release of salaries and institutional funds

Human resource management, including promotions, recruitment and disciplinary processes

University officials warn that the strike could destabilise the academic calendar and leave thousands of students stranded midway through the semester.

At the heart of the industrial action is a research allowance negotiated on 10 July 2024 — a benefit TUSAAG insists is not a privilege, but a contractual obligation tied directly to administrators’ career progression.

The allowance is intended to support mandatory research and publication, a requirement for promotion within the technical university structure.

TUSAAG argues that government’s continued delay undermines the professional standing and morale of its members, who form what it calls the “administrative spine” of tertiary institutions.

The Association says the strike is the culmination of months of unproductive dialogue with state bodies, including:

The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC)

The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC)

Attempts to meet the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, have also been unsuccessful, according to the union.

In a statement, TUSAAG said formal letters and repeated requests for a meeting had either gone unanswered or been indefinitely postponed.

Although the shutdown is expected to create significant operational challenges, TUSAAG maintains that industrial action became inevitable after what it describes as prolonged governmental inaction.

The union says it remains open to immediate and genuine negotiations, but stresses that the strike is intended to secure the attention that earlier appeals failed to achieve.