Member of Parliament for Ketu North, and member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Eric Edem Agbana, has described the University of Professional Studies, Accra’s (UPSA) renewed enforcement of its dress code, including a ban on anklets and nose rings , as an overreach and an affront to personal expression at the tertiary level.
In a personal statement made on X (formerly twitter), the MP condemned the policy as excessive and cautioned against what he called a creeping culture of control in academic institutions.
“I understand the importance of instilling 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. UPSA must reconsider the scope of this directive,” Hon. Agbana stated.
His comments come in response to a memorandum issued by the Office of the Dean of Students at UPSA on June 30, 2025, which reiterated the university’s dress code policy and warned that a task force had been deployed to enforce compliance beginning July 1.
According to the memo, students “will not be allowed into lecture halls with unkempt hair, shorts, bathroom slippers, track suits, anklets, nose rings,” among other items.
The directive, which the university says is based on its 2018 Students’ Handbook, has triggered outrage on social media after videos emerged showing students being dragged out of lecture halls by security for alleged improper dressing.
Hon. Agbana cautioned that if such directives go unchallenged, universities may escalate to more invasive bans.
“If we do not nip such directives in the bud, an institution may wake up tomorrow and declare that students with tattoos, or anything similar, 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.”
The UPSA directive, though not new, has drawn attention for its aggressive enforcement measures and for targeting forms of self-expression many consider harmless. The university, however, maintains that it is committed to upholding its core values of “Scholarship with Professionalism.”