He said each of the three would be a school that would be awarding their own degrees, explaining that the idea was long mooted by the previous government and that it was not anything new.

Dr Prempeh explained that each of the three wanted to stand as an autonomous university, but that was not accepted, explaining that it was to ensure that resources were maximized.

Speaking at the meet the press series in Accra Tuesday, he announced that from now, only PhD holders will be allowed to lecture in a university.

"Now if you do not hold a PhD, you will not be able to teach in a university," the Education Minister said.

"But most of the lecturers in our colleges of education do not hold PhD. So we are giving them time to improve their knowledge, through the British government support" he added.

This, he said was to enable the universities to develop the capacity of teachers in the colleges of education.

He was hopeful that if the lecturers of the colleges of education were part of the university, the university would help those lecturers to get onto the PhD programmes.