Research in universities remains underdeveloped – Report

A recent report shows that although the country has as many as nine public and 60 private universities, only 730 students are studying for PhDs, as many Ghanaians prefer to go abroad for research and further studies, reports GhanaWeb.

According to the 2017 edition of the Oxford Business Group’s investment and economic report on more than 30 countries, the research function of universities in Ghana remains underdeveloped. Describing it as one of the higher education system’s “significant weaknesses”, the report states: “International education is currently filling the gap here.”

The 730 PhD students are part of a total of 166,508 students studying in various universities in the country, for various levels of qualification. The relatively low number of PhD students has implications not only for research and development generally, but on faculty at the universities themselves, especially as in some respects, the universities, particularly the public ones, insist on PhD holders as lecturers.
Full report on the GhanaWeb site