Falling tertiary standards a threat to national progress

The Former Minister for Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has raised concerns over the deteriorating quality of tertiary education in Ghana, warning that the trend could undermine the country’s human capital and stall national development.

Speaking in a media interview, Dr Donkor said the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) is failing to deliver on its statutory mandate to safeguard academic standards, accredit programmes, and align university output with the country’s manpower needs.

Weak Oversight, Rising Risks

According to Dr Donkor, although Parliament empowered GTEC through legislation to ensure consistent quality across institutions of higher learning, monitor academic standards, and advise government on structuring tertiary education, these responsibilities “have been more noticed in their absence than in their execution.”

He fears this regulatory lapse has opened the door for tertiary institutions, especially public universities, to compromise quality in pursuit of internally generated funds.

Low-Quality Master’s Degrees

Dr Donkor expressed particular concern over what he described as the mass production of low-quality master’s graduates.

He criticised the growing trend of one-year, weekend-only postgraduate programmes run by public universities, describing it as an abnormality driven by revenue rather than academic rigour.

“We are mass-producing students with supposedly master’s qualifications, but with no depth. They are running weekend and evening courses, master’s, with very little quality assurance.How can any serious jurisdiction entertain a situation where students at the graduate level attend lectures only on weekends, write exams, and earn master’s degrees in one year?

“It is an abnormality. These decisions by public universities are IGF-driven. It is just money-driven. They are in the business of making money. Universities have turned into open markets for making money at the expense of quality,” Dr Donkor said.

He compared the country’s practices with those in advanced jurisdictions, where part-time master’s programmes typically last twice as long as full-time options.

Human Capital at the Core of Development

Linking education to development outcomes, Dr Donkor argued that human capital is the single most important driver of national progress, surpassing natural resources.

“One of the most critical skills in national development is human capital. Development is not accidental. It arises out of deliberate steps taken by a nation or by a people. Human capital is the first agent of development. Development starts from the intellect, and that is where human capital is far more critical today than natural resources. If we are creating substandard human capital, if we are content with mediocrity as a people, our outcomes will also be mediocre,” he stated.

Losing Ghana’s Premium Education Status

Dr Donkor lamented that Ghana, once celebrated in West Africa for its premium education system, is fast losing that recognition due to the monetisation of higher education.

“Traditionally, in the West African and African region, Ghanaian education has held such a premium. But we are, by our actions and inactions, withering away this premium. We are losing that because university administrations, and I use the plural because they cut across, are more interested in making money for the universities than providing quality research-based education that enhances national development,” he emphasised.

The Way Forward

The former Minister called for an urgent overhaul of tertiary education governance, urging GTEC to reassert its authority by enforcing rigorous quality assurance in all academic programmes, especially postgraduate studies.

He further recommended that the commission rein in the proliferation of money-driven weekend master’s programmes and prioritise manpower planning that links academic training to Ghana’s socio-economic needs.

Bottom Line

Dr Donkor emphasised the direct correlation between a nation’s socio-economic progress and the quality of its human capital. A weak tertiary education system, he warned, would only produce a weak workforce, inevitably leading to stalled development and wasted opportunities.

“The nation cannot afford regulatory complacency at a time when human capital, not natural resources, is the engine of global competitiveness,” he stressed.