Abstract:

An important issue of contention underlying the contestation of the utility of African Higher education has been an understandable pressure for a firmer relationship between university education and vocational training.  It has been asserted that African universities are not sufficiently vocational, in particular that educated university graduates do not fit easily into the developmental activities of state and society.  The courses that are taught are not relevant to the requirements of the productive sector.  Whether African universities prepare their students with sufficient knowledge and skills for employment has been a contentious issue.  It is arguable that in most African countries there is not a sufficient empirical basis for related assessments. The research reported here contributes to the development of such an empirical basis. It is a tracer study of graduates of Ghanaian universities during the ten-year period: 1985 – 1993.
The study points up immense difficulties that have to be overcome in the development of a system of rigorous graduate tracer studies in Ghana.  The author provides concluding remarks around three distinct issues: the methodological requirements and implications of this specific study, for the development of regular, systematic graduate tracer studies in Ghana; reiteration of the important findings from our study; and some more general remarks which situate the study in the dynamic context of Higher Education in Ghana.

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Djangmah, Jerome (2000). The challenge of further vocationalising university education in Ghana: a survey of university graduates Study programme for the management of higher education in Africa, AAU, Accra, Ghana