Member of Parliament for Ketu North and member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Edem Agbana, has strongly criticised the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), over its directive to enforce a strict dress code on campus.
The university, in a notice signed by the Dean of Students, announced that effective July 1, 2025, a task force would be deployed across campus to enforce the long-standing dress code policy.
The policy, captured in Section 1.32.6 of the 2018 Undergraduate Students’ Handbook, prohibits students from wearing nose rings, anklets, tattered jeans, tight or baggy trousers, sneakers, and clothing bearing slogans or images. Students will also be barred from lecture halls if they wear unkempt hair, shorts, bathroom slippers, or tracksuits.
While the university says the directive aims to uphold decency and professionalism, Mr. Agbana has described the move as excessive and an infringement on students’ freedom of expression.
“I understand the importance of discipline and upholding codes of conduct in our educational institutions. However, banning nose rings, anklets, and similar forms of personal expression at the tertiary level is an overreach,” he stated in a public release.
The former student leader added that if such measures go unchallenged, institutions might take things too far.
“If we do not nip such directives in the bud, an institution may wake up tomorrow and declare that students with tattoos or similar expressions are not welcome. As a former student leader, I would not have accepted such a measure. As a Member of Parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, I do not accept it now.”
Mr. Agbana stressed that while maintaining decorum in academic settings is important, universities must be cautious not to police personal expression in ways that are unnecessary or discriminatory.
UPSA has defended the directive, saying it aligns with its institutional mantra, “Scholarship with Professionalism,” and must be enforced to maintain standards.
The policy has since sparked widespread debate online, with many questioning its relevance and fairness in a tertiary institution.
