Factor Postgraduate research findings in policy making- Prof. Oduro

Category: Education Created on Thursday, 26 July 2012 16:28 Published Date Written by GNA Hits: 286

Cape Coast July 26, GNA - Professor George Oduro, Director of the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration on Wednesday advocated that the practice whereby graduate and postgraduate theses become an examination-oriented activity and only find themselves on the shelves after certification should be reviewed.
     He  also suggested that Faculties should consider introducing a course on ‘Turning Research into Policy ‘ in their postgraduate education programmes , saying that this  would help postgraduate students to develop  the skills of linking their research to policy.
     Prof. Oduro said these at the opening of the 18th Delegates Congress of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).
        The six-day congress which is being attended by students from all the public universities as well as the Methodist university and the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS), is under the theme,  “Postgraduate  Education and Research: a Tool for National Development.”
     The congress is to deliberate on challenges of postgraduate education and the way forward as well as to elect its national executives.
         Prof. Oduro underscored the important role research played in the socio-economic development of the nation, stressing that  postgraduate  education and research  was an asset to national development.     He said the nation could benefit from  this if  there was much commitment  towards funding  postgraduate studies, as well as  creating  an enabling environment for postgraduate students to  link  their research to contextual issues and policy.
      He said it was imperative for universities to consider retaining most of their postgraduate products to strengthen their academic staff so that enrolment level of the postgraduate could be increased.
           He said  inadequate funding had resulted in the dwindling  post graduate enrolment  in  Africa and Ghana in particular, stressing that  as at 2009  postgraduate  enrolment was 15 per cent  in South Africa, 7 per cent in Nigeria and 4 per cent in Ghana.
         Prof Oduro noted that statistics from the UCC indicated that in the 2009/2010 academic year, out of a total of 3,914 students enrolment only 328 were postgraduate students, whiles in 2010/2011 only 394 postgraduate students out of 4,094 students were enrolled. In the University of Ghana the proportion of postgraduate students reduced from 14 per cent  in 2000 to 7 per cent in 2008.
       “Unless the dwindling trend of postgraduate students' admissions are reversed our country and for that matter Africa will hardly benefit from postgraduate education and research”, he added
   In this regard, he tasked the university authorities to  explore ways of increasing  the number of  postgraduate admissions  and cautioned  that in pursuing this  the university  authorities  should put in place  structures to reduce  financial  waste in the system  by discouraging  the practice of spending  huge sums of money  in providing  PhD degree programmes to employees who practically did not require such training in the accomplishment  of their job specifications.
         Prof. Oduro also suggested that academics should provide good role models to postgraduate students by not indexing their research activities to publication for promotion alone, but should rather explore ways of briefing policy makers about their findings.
        He expressed concern about  the  shortage of academic staff  at the postgraduate level and called for an urgent  concerted action to address the problem ,noting that African academy would not only lose its ability to  produce  the requisite  number of  personnel to support  their countries' human resource  needs but the quality of intellectual life would continue to erode.
         For his part Professor Lawrence Owusu Ansah Dean of the UCC Graduate Studies and Research, and Patron of the UCC GRASAG, said it was the wish of every university to train a number of post graduate students, but regretted that the   completion rate of postgraduate students was very low in most of the universities.
       He said the rate at which students entered the postgraduate programme was not commensurate with the completion rate, stressing that instead of  the two to three years  duration for a  postgraduate MPhil  programme some used  more than four years whiles at the PhD level instead of the five  years  some  took 10 years and described the situation as worrying.
     Prof. Ansah attributed the situation to the fact that students had to engage in either part or full-time jobs to enable them to generate some income to finance their education. This, he noted, did not allow them to fully concentrate on their academic work particularly on their theses.
           He however urged them to empower themselves and work hard towards their goal despite the financial challenges that come with pursuing a postgraduate education.
         Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman,  Vice Chancellor of UCC who presided advised postgraduate students to remain focused and dedicate more time to their academic work instead of seeking part-time and in some cases full time jobs.
       She was unhappy that some postgraduate students gained admission to the University without knowing what they actually want to pursue and suggested that students should be made to write proposals in their area of studies before they were admitted.