Universities in many industrialized countries including Japan, and Australia, have enabled those countries to achieve rapid economic and social advancement. However, this is untrue for the universities of Ghana, due to the country's ailing economy, its continued dependence on foreign manpower, aid, and material goods.
The purpose of this study, therefore, was to illuminate the major factors and events that have controlled and inhibited the development of higher education in Ghana from 1948 to 1984.
The method of acquiring data involved a computer and manual search for documents from (1) ERIC Database, (2) libraries, and (3) Embassy of Ghana, Washington, D.C.
The findings include: (1) Establishment of universities on the basis of the Asquith Doctrine; (2) Imitation of British universities' curriculum, constitution, standards and social functions; (3) Characterization of universities by elitism, lack of diversity and adaptation, autonomy, excellence and narrow specialism in their honor programs; (4) Emphasis on cognitive rather than psychomotor learning; (5) Matriculation of inadequately qualified secondary school science students; (6) Absence of a nationally formulated statement of manpower needs, goals, and effective long-term planning; (7) Financial exigencies; (8) Suppression, perversion and abuse of academic and intellectual freedom by the government and universities; (9) Inconsistent governmental policies due to abrupt changes in government by military coups.
The major conclusion was that inadequate controls over the scope, quality, content and purpose of higher education resulted in an unanticipated and unplanned consequences: unemployment, lack of qualified manpower and weak economy.
The major recommendations include: (1) Relating curriculum to culture and needs of Ghanaians; (2) Emancipating students and teachers toward certain hard and low prestige courses vital to economic and national progress; (3) Pragmatizing education and emphasizing science in secondary schools; (4) Widening of subject structure of honor degree programs; (5) Forming a national educational and scientific research policy; (6) NCHE headed by higher education expert and not just a politician; (7) Dismantling governmental controls over academic and intellectual freedom; (8) Government to respond to problems of Ghana that lead to political upheaval.
