Every country needs such experts as economists, engineers, scientists, technicians, and middle-level managers to lead its economic development and growth programs: experts who could assist in formulating economic development growth policies, facilitate them, and see to their effective and efficient implementation. The training of such manpower, nevertheless, seems to be the onus of higher education; yet in Ghana, and most developing economies, higher education is not fully developed to shoulder such a responsibility.
The study investigated the expansion of the tertiary education sub-sector and how it could be made developmentally oriented to foster economic growth.
A purposeful sampling through snowballing was used to select 45 well-informed participants on tertiary education: (1) Government respondents (IG) (n = 15); (2) Private industry respondents (IPE) (n = 15); (3) Higher education respondents (IHE) (n = 15). A qualitative interview instrument in the form of standardized open-ended questions was utilized. A majority of the respondents believe that the provision of tertiary education in the country is inadequate, yet the poor economic state of the country has made it almost impossible for the government of Ghana to maintain the existing public universities, much less expand them. The study revealed that science and technology education is limited by the lack of resources, preventing most students wishing to pursue these courses from doing so. This impedes the country's development. The respondents felt that it is time for the government of Ghana to invite and encourage individuals and private organizations to assist in the provision of tertiary education in the country. The respondents felt that programs offered at the country's tertiary institutions were not congruent with national development objectives. They cited tertiary institutions' lack of adequate computers and science equipment as impeding the production of the much-needed technical, scientific, and managerial manpower to lead the economy. The result of this study was consistent with the background study on New England, which calls for full participation and integration of colleges, universities, and professional schools in local, state, and regional economic planning. It calls for the recognition of higher education as partners in economic development.
