Higher Education for
Sustainable Development:
Public or Private Good?
What is Public Good
 Role of Govt in allocating resources
 Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson
(2011) look at two characteristics :
 Non-excludability (non-payers cannot be excluded from
consuming the good)
 Non-Rivalry in consumption (benefits to others are not
diminished because others are consuming)
Education as a Public Good
 The public benefits from people getting higher education
 Often earn more money and pay more taxes
 Become active citizens in a democracy
 Innovation generates new products and services for all
 Benefits shared by participants and rest of society
 Therefore, the cost of public higher education to be borne
by the state
 Subsidies/Subventions
 Grants
 Loans
Higher Education as a
Private Good
 Benefits accrue solely to the individual and provides no
public good
 Many taxpayers who do not attend or use public funds
do not benefit
 Waste of public funds to support to support
programmes that would contribute to graduate
unemployment
Ghana’s Triple Heritage
of Education
Traditional/African Education
Islamic/Arabic Education
Christian/European Education
Higher Education in Ghana:
Public Good or Private Good?
 Who should provide higher education?






Individuals?
Families?
Communities?
Religious institutions?
Government (i.e., the state)?
Non-Government Organizations?
Christianity and European
Formal Education in Ghana
 Formal education starts with the
European Christian Missionaries
Castle schools to train children
of Europeans & mulattos
Train and convert Africans
Early Missionary Schools
 Akropong Teacher Training College [Boys], Akropong






(Basel Mission-Presbyterian), 1848
Mfantsipim [Boys], Cape Coast (Wesleyan Mission-Methodist), 1876
Adisadel College [Boys], Cape Coast (Church of England-Anglican), 1910
Wesley College [Boys], Kumasi (Wesleyan MissionMethodist), 1924
Ola Training College [Girls], Cape Coast (Roman
Catholic- Our Lady of Apostles), 1926
St. Augustine’s College [Boys], Cape Coast (Roman
Catholic Mission), 1930
Odomase Krobo Secondary School [Mixed], Krobo (Basel
Mission-Presbyterian), 1938
Achimota College: Departure
from Missionary Education
 Established 1924 by the Colonial government and
formally opened in 1927
 An elite secondary school based on the British model
of public education
 Publicly-funded by Government
 Interdenominational, with students and staff practicing
their own denomination of Christianity.
Full Fledge Public Education
 Vision – to train boys and girls to be at ease in
both traditional culture and western settings.
 Full kindergarten, primary, secondary,
intermediate and teacher training
 Engineering and external degree courses from
University of London
 An instrument for controlling and directing the
future of the country through changing people’s
behavior and ideas
Missionary Schools Cont’d
 Aggrey Memorial College [Mixed], Cape Coast, founded in






1940; named changed to Aggrey Memorial A.M.E. Zion
Secondary School in 1947 (African Methodist Episcopal)
Holy Child Secondary School [Girls], Cape Coast (Roman
Catholic), 1946
Prempeh College [Boys], Kumasi (Methodist-Presbyterian),
1949
T.I. Ahamadiyya Secondary School [Mixed], Kumasi
(Ahmadiyya Movement-Muslim), 1951
Opoku Ware School [Boys], Kumasi (Roman Catholic), 1952
Holy Child Training College [Girls], Tarkoradi (Roman
Catholic), 1955
SDA Teacher Training College [Mixed], Bekwai (Adventists)
Birth of Public Universities
in Ghana
 Achimota College gave birth to the
first two public universities in Ghana
 University of Ghana (1948)
 Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology (1961)
Is Higher Education in
Ghana a Public Good?
 James Cemmel examines the broad functions of
Higher Education
 Research (development of new knowledge)
 Teaching (training of highly qualified personnel)
 Extension services (Working/providing services in the
community)
 Ethical function (Social criticism)
University of Ghana, Legon
 Founded in 1948 as the
University College of
London to provide
university education,
learning, and research
in the then British
colony. The original
emphasis was on the
liberal arts, social
sciences, basic
science, agriculture,
and medicine
Kwame Nkrumah University
of Science and Technology
 Established in 1961 to provide higher
education in science and technology for
the technological development of the
country
University of Cape Coast
 Established in 1962
with a mandate to train
highly qualified and
skilled teachers and
administrators,
especially for the
Ghana Education
Service
University for
Development Studies
 Established in 1992 as
a multi-campus
institution with a
mission to blend the
academic world with
that of the community
for the total
development of
northern Ghana
University of Education,
Winneba
 Established in 1992 for teacher education for
second-cycle institutions
Demand for Higher
Education in Ghana
 UNESCO estimates that in Ghana, only 2.6% of all
children who enter primary schools eventually
make it to the tertiary level
 Today, the demand for higher education in the
country is very high resulting is a rapid increase in
enrollment
 Enrollments in Ghana’s national universities have
increased significantly in the last two decades
following the publication of the University
Rationalization Report in 1988
 Still, Ghanaian public universities can only offer
admissions to about 35% of qualified applicants
Expanding the Structure of
Higher Education in Ghana
 The term Tertiary Education is adopted in 1992 in the 4th
Republic of Ghana
 The new Constitution established the National Council for
Tertiary Education (NCTE)
 Higher Education expanded to include ALL post-secondary
educational institutions:
 Universities
 University Colleges
 Polytechnics
 Professional Institutions
 NCTE becomes the advisory body on tertiary education to the
Minister of Education
 A Minister of State for Tertiary Education was appointed in 2003
Ghana’s Road to Privatization of
Higher Education
 Under the Education Sector Reform of the country’s Economic
Recovery Program of the late 1980s, private providers were
given official permission to establish institutions of higher
education
 The National Accreditation Board (NAB) was established in
1993 to accredit both public and private tertiary institutions for
contents, standards, and management
 Religious organizations and individual have embarked on
efforts to establish private colleges and universities
 Between 1995 and 2007, the NAB has accredited 25 private
universities and colleges, 70% of which are religious-based
 With the exception of the Islamic University College, all of the
private religious institutions of higher education are Christiansponsored
Why Proliferation of Private Religious
Higher Education in Ghana?
 To increase access to qualified individuals who do not gain
admission to the traditional public universities
 To provide quality and practically-oriented education in the
African cultural context
 To focus on Theology, Business-related, and ICT courses
 To train individuals to assume leadership roles in the
various religious organizations
 To address indiscipline in the society
 Strengthen spiritual development to counteract the
excesses of Western consumer culture
Representations of Private Religious
Institutions in Ghana
 Protestants
 Valley View University (Seventh-Day Adventists)
 Methodist University College
 African Pentecostals
 Central University College (International Central Gospel
Church)
 Roman Catholic
 Catholic University College
 Islamic
 Islamic University College (Ahlul-Bait Foundation of
Islamic Republic of Iran)
Contemporary Views on Religion and
Educational Attainment
 Religion and globalization combine to shape the social and
cultural landscape of the country
 African Pentecostal Christian groups and charismatic
movements have grown dramatically and taken serious interest
in the establishment of colleges. In 1993, while non-Catholic
and non-mainline Protestant Christians accounted for just
16.9% of the population, they accounted for 41% in 2003
 Of particular interest is the Pentecostals’ emphasis on “the
gospel of prosperity” –elimination of poverty by stressing the
importance of socioeconomic success
 The development of skills and talents to find African solutions to
the continent’s problems
 The Muslim communities’ have began to embrace the
interaction of Islamic and Western secular education for
socioeconomic development
 A variety of innovative efforts to address the issues of access
Issues of Contention with Private
Religious Higher Education
 The meaning of secular education in religious institutions
 The implications of deeply-held religious ideologies for open
access and equity
 The limitations of religious institution’s current focus:
 Theological Studies; ICT; Business Management
 Little attention to Science Courses and Faculty/Student Research
 Students’ funding options for private higher education
 The reinforcement of class privileges offered by fee-based private
higher education for the children of the wealthy and elite
 The government’s response to the demand of private religious and
non-religious institution for public funding
Experiences With Higher Education:
The Tale of Two Formerly
Colonized Countries
Tertiary Education Strategies After Independence:
Comparing Ghana & South Korea
Ghana
South Korea
 Slow growth of public tertiary
 The development of tertiary
education enrollment over the
years
 In the late 1980s, the government
formulated a reform program
including:
 Measures to improve the financial
sustainability of the system
 Increase quality and relevance
 Promote enrollment expansion
 Permission for private sector
involvement in tertiary education
education has taken place in 4
distinct phases:
 Expansion of public institutions in
the 1950s with cost-sharing
equivalent to 30% of expenditures,
 Encouragement of private
institutions with limited public
funding in the 1960s (capital costs
and scholarships)
 Expansion of engineering and
technical education to meet
manpower concerns in the 1970s
and 1980s
 Focus on quality, R&D capacity,
accountability, deregulation and
performance-based funding in the
1990s.
Comparing Outcomes
Ghana & South Korea
Enrollment ratio for the eligible cohort has
stagnated at under 2%. eligible age cohort
The enrollment ratio for the eligible age cohort
has skyrocketed from 5% to 80% between 1960
and 2000
Private institutions have emerged only
recently and represent no more than 6% of
total enrollment.
Private tertiary institutions have proliferated
enrolling 85% of the total
student population in 2000
Public expenditure has been compressed
drastically from $1,200
in 1990 to $850 in 2000
Public expenditure per student has gone up
dramatically from $2,700 in 1990 to $4,500 in
2000
The enrollment of students in science and
technology disciplines has remained
relatively constant, at about 50%
The enrollment of students in science and
technology disciplines has remained
relatively constant, at about 50%
Linkages between tertiary education and
industry have been relatively uncommon
The government has actively promoted
university-industry partnerships
since the late 1980s
Knowledge Is a Key Factor in Explaining the
Difference Between Poverty and Wealth
Can Ghana Learn From the Korean
Experience?
 Language development
 Science and technology
 Research & development
 The role of foreign aid
 Family financial contributions to education
 The role of industry
 Ensuring access for the bright but needy
Ghana’s New Educational
Reforms, 2007
 According to the government White Paper, the new
reform was driven by the need to:
“…review the entire educational system in the country with a
view of making it more responsive to current challenges… to
examine the structure of education and to discuss issues
affecting the development and delivery of education, the
constrained access to different levels of the educational ladder,
Information and Communication Technology and Distance
Education…the crisis at the tertiary educational level, with
insufficient places to meet the needs of a modernizing
economy…difficulties in the development of the polytechnics
within the scope of higher education, and the vexed problem of
sustainable financing of the whole tertiary education sector.”
Sustaining Higher Educational
Attainment in Ghana
 Who are the beneficiaries of Higher Education today?
 Is Higher Education, then a Public Good? A Private Good, or a
Mixture?
 How do we sustain funding for Higher Education?
 The contemporary struggle in Ghana today is about social,
economic, and political power; and how that socio-economicpolitical power is distributed in the society across the geographic,
ethnic, religious, and educational divide.