Legal scholar and social commentator, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has cautioned the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), over the dismissal of students from lecture halls for indecent dressing.
In a memo signed by the Office of the Dean and dated June 30, UPSA management expressed concern about the way some students dress on campus, particularly during lectures.
The memo stressed that the university’s policy on dress code “has NOT CHANGED” and that the “DRESS CODE POLICY WILL BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO.”
“With effect from July 1, 2025, a task force will be positioned at strategic locations on campus to enforce the dress code and bring sanity to campus. Note that you will not be allowed into lecture halls with unkempt hair, shorts, bathroom slippers, track suits, anklets, nose rings, etc., to mention a few,” the statement read in part.
In line with this directive, videos circulating on social media on Wednesday, July 2, showed some task force members sacking students from lecture halls for dressing deemed inappropriate.
Reacting in a Facebook post, Prof Azar said, “The university may well be acting within its rules of conduct. Yet, it must tread carefully. Rules that disproportionately restrict student freedoms, are vague in definition, or are enforced arbitrarily, risk undermining the very intellectual climate a university is meant to foster.”
He added, “After all, the purpose of higher education is not conformity, but critical thought, self-exploration, and the growth of personal identity, including in how one chooses to present oneself.”
He clarified that he is not calling for a free-for-all, but noted that while institutions have the right—and sometimes the duty—to set standards, “they must be standards that respect dignity, uphold rights, and accommodate diversity.”
