Professor Eugene Okyere-Kwakye, Professor of Management Studies, Koforidua Technical University, says tertiary education curriculum must be crafted in alignment with Ghana’s national development agenda.
He said that would ensure students were trained in courses that were relevant to national development towards addressing the country’s challenges.
“There should be a unitary direction with what we are teaching in our institutions and where we are going or seeking to achieve as a nation in terms of our national development agenda.
“It should not be a case of rolling out courses or curriculum just for its sake, but these courses must be based on the human resource knowledge and skills set the country need at a particular period,” he said.
Prof. Okyere-Kwakye said this during a panel discussion on the topic “Promoting Quality, Equitable and Inclusive Higher Education for National Development”, at the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programmes’ (ACBSP) Ghana Cohort Programme launch.
The Ghana Cohort Programme Launch outdoored the entry membership of six Ghanaian tertiary institutions into the ACBSP, which is an international accreditation agency based in the US.
The six universities are Valley View University, Laweh Open University, Koforidua Technical University, Catholic University of Ghana, All Nations University and Pentecost University.
Mr Okyere-Kwakye called for deepened collaboration between academia and policy makers in developing curriculum that would be in sync with the country’s development agenda.
He said that was how to address the rising incidence of graduate unemployment, saying, students through that strategy would be able to acquire skills and trainings that were highly employable and practical to sustainable nation building.
Dr Abraham Lincoln Owusu, Africa Regional Head of ACBSP, said the six universities from their entry membership step would now commence application for full accreditation from the ACBSP, which took a minimum of three years.
He added that with their association with the ACBSP they stood to benefit from having seamless engagement with other accredited institutions and also shape their curriculum in line with international ones.