Tertiary education in Africa has retrogressed – Prof Aryeetey

The former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, has expressed worry over the decline in standards in tertiary education on the African continent.

Prof. Aryeetey, who has over four decades in the tertiary education space bemoaned the lack of attempts to resolve the challenges confronting tertiary education in Africa.

“We have a long way to go because there has been a lot of retrogression over the years in many of Africa’s universities,” Prof. Aryeetey told the host of Footprints on Citi TV, Samuel Attah-Mensah.

“There has been a lack of willingness to confront difficult challenges and this is found in universities across the African continent,” he added.

To confront the challenges, Prof. Aryeetey currently runs the African Research Universities Alliance which is a network of 16 of Africa’s flagship universities aimed at using the resources of universities that are doing well to improve struggling ones.

“The challenge for us is how to use their [improved universities] resources to improve others through collaboration,” he said.

Professor Aryeetey made positive and bold impacts at the University of Ghana during his tenure as Vice Chancellor from 2010 to 2016.

Among the major highlights of his tenure was facilitating the construction of the University of Ghana Medical Center which he describes as his proudest moment as Vice-Chancellor.