Director: Daniel C. Levy

A Foray into the Liberal Arts Model

PROPHE Summary:

Ashesi University is a five-year old liberal arts college in Ghana. Ashesi's expressed vision is that it be, alongside potential counterparts, a quality college based on form comparable to the U.S. liberal arts model. It also looks to educate people to be leaders and indeed runs a leadership seminar. Now at 400 students, but projecting itself up to 2000, Ashesi has emulated the curriculum of several U.S. institutions. Tuition accounts for roughly 80 percent of income. Ashesi claims that its graduates are much in demand in the business sector.

For the full article see Inside Higher Ed October 19, 2007, "A Liberal Arts College Marks Five Years in Ghana" by Elizabeth Redden.

PROPHE Observation:

Although emulation of U.S. practice is increasingly common globally, a couple of factors stand out in this case. One is the quite explicit, open lauding of the U.S. case. Another is the liberal arts emphasis, including a reality of smallness. The liberal arts approach is long standing in the U.S., but in most other countries tradition has involved more of a basic first-level professional degree, as in law, not relying on graduate school for such training. The liberal arts college sector is overwhelmingly private in the U.S., but what Ashesi looks to emulate are mostly common features of U.S. higher education: general education, flexible curriculum, student choice, delayed professionalization, and so forth. Thus Ashesi looks at U.S. public as well as private institutions.