The Quest for World-Classness: Lessons for Newly Created Public Universities in Ghana

Abstract

There is a growing trend globally, among institutions of higher learning to either claim to be world-class Centers of Excellence or to aspire to be. Evidence of the quest for world-classness by these institutions abound in their strategic mandates, vision, and mission statements. Public universities in Ghana are no exception to the rule, and there seem to be a close competition between so-called traditional universities and newly created ones for world-classness albeit through vision and mission statements. This study sought to examine successes chalked by three selected traditional universities in Ghana and the coping strategies initiated by two recently established ones in their quest to distinguish themselves as world-class centers of excellence. The study adopted the exploratory research method or approach. Relevant documents reviewed included the Act of Parliament establishing the regulator of tertiary education in Ghana; the Acts of Parliament establishing the five selected public universities for the study; strategic mandates, vision, mission statements, core values and reports from the selected public universities. The findings revealed a rigorous criteria or performance indicators prescribed by globally renowned league tables, notably the Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking League. It further revealed that the traditional universities, have featured prominently on world league tables on the basis of global reputation for research, quality of conference papers, citation impact score and number of international collaborations or linkages created, while the newly created ones are yet to make an impression. Thus, the study recommends the prioritization of benchmarked practices.