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For the first time, representatives of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) and the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) have participated in the deliberation of the final report of the Professor Mireku-Gyimah-led committee on the operationalization of the Tertiary Education Research Fund (TERE), signalling a softening of their stance against the fund. UTAG and POTAG had earlier declined to send their representatives to the inaugural ceremony of the committee in February this year, and its subsequent deliberations. Mandate of committee The committee is charged with the responsibility of drawing guidelines and modalities for accessing the research fund, identify sources of generating money to sustain the fund and to draw up management structures for the fund devoid of political interference. Since February 10, 2014, when the committee was inaugurated, it has had three meetings in February, March and April. The committee consulted related local and international documents and drew from experiences of countries where national research mechanisms have worked successfully. At yesterday�s deliberation, stakeholders subjected the final report to scrutiny, the outcome of which would be incorporated into the committee�s final report. Leading stakeholders in the discussion, the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education, Professor Mahama Duwiejua, underscored the importance of research to national development. Independence of research He said for Africa to drive its research agenda, �African research must be funded by Africa�, explaining that it was the only way to have an independent research work. Professor Duwiejua stressed that universities should be able to generate new knowledge that could only be possible through research, quoting a popular saying that �universities without research activities run the risk of a glorified SHS�. During a general discussion, stakeholders unanimously agreed on the need for a comprehensive national research policy to safeguard the manipulations of the fund in the future. Long overdue Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in a remark, said the establishment of national research fund was long overdue, describing it as an embarrassment that Ghana did not have such a fund. Welcoming the representatives of UTAG and POTAG, he said it was an opportunity for them to make their inputs and expressed the hope that members would be able to fashion out the modalities of who qualified for the fund and how to access it. A former Presidential Advisor, Dr Christiana Amoako-Nuamah, who chaired the session, said she was happy that the participants were frank in their contributions and suggested to the NCTE to incorporate the concerns raised during the deliberations into the final document.