Building Institutional Capacity for Technical University Status through Academic Staff Development: The Case of Sunyani Polytechnic

The emerging trend and present practices in polytechnic education has renewed the concern for staff development interventions in response to conditions which challenge polytechnic education to ensure the overall quality and relevance of its courses. The need to upgrade the qualification of staff continues to receive priority in polytechnic education with the plans of the government to convert polytechnics into Degree Awarding Technical Universities.  The study aimed to diagnose the current state of staff development practices and policy framework that support professional development and come out with candid recommendations with Sunyani Polytechnic as the context environment. The study shows that staff development exist in the institution as an institutional practice but it is uncoordinated and ad hoc. Awareness of staff development programmes is generally high but the culture within which it operates has always favoured those who are interested and ‘ready to go for them’. It was uncommon to find professional development activities such as induction, mentoring and peer assessment. These practices remain relatively infrequent and yet to be streamlined. However, long training programmes such as sandwich and study leave with pay have received proper attention and are helping to upgrade the skills of academic staff. Recommendations of the study for policy development proceed directly from the study and justify continues professional development of teachers.