Demographics of African Faculty: A Pioneering Pilot in Ghana

Marlene A. Lee, Population Reference Bureau
Toshiko Kaneda, Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
Christine Power, Population Reference Bureau
Jonathan Mba, Association of African Universities
Samuel Agyapong, Association of African Universities

Many public tertiary education institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa are confronting growth in student enrollment fueled by population growth, universal primary education, and higher participation in secondary school. Ghanaian national education policy addresses growing demand for tertiary education through target goals for growth in student enrolment. As a result, Ghana’s public universities face increasing need for academic research and teaching staff. At the same time, other policies have been put in place in accordance with best practices and Ghana’s economic development goals. These include requiring PhDs for tertiary academics, discipline-specific norms for student-teacher ratios, and norms for the share of students enrolled in science disciplines. In this paper, we quantify the implications of these policies for the recruitment and retention of higher education faculty, estimating the number of new hires needed just to maintain the status quo as well as the numbers that would be needed to fulfill the policy standards.