Kofi Asare, the Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), has told former Education Minister and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum University degrees must build skills to succeed, not just lead to jobs.
The Eduwatch Executive Director argued that degree programmes should be assessed by the skills they develop rather than being judged solely on immediate job outcomes.
In a Facebook post, Kofi Asare argued, βNot every university degree needs to be directly tied to a specific job, but every degree must build the skills to succeed in work, further study, or entrepreneurship. βThe wise elephant remembers paths, not just placesβ. -Larteh Proverb!β.
In another post, Kofi Asare warned against personal attacks in public discourse, saying, βWhy can’t one hold a contrary opinion without being insulted? Must disagreement with Adutwum be framed in personal attacks? Did we learn the basics of debate in school at all? βA good argument does not need insults to standβ. Larteh Proverb!β.
His comments follows, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has described some university courses in Ghana as useless, as they do not adequately prepare students for the job market.
Dr Adutwum raised concerns about the relevance of certain university programmes in Ghana.
The former Education Minister criticised the BA in Education (Non-Teaching) programme at the University of Ghana, arguing that graduates often struggle to find employment after completing national service.
Speaking recently on the Konnected Minds podcast, Dr Adutwum stated, βThere are some courses that are being offered. When I was the minister, I challenged universities about that. And I spoke about how we don’t need anybody to offer courses called Development Studies, and it was being offered at UDSβ.
“The Vice-Chancellor called me the day after and said, ‘Minister, because of the comment that you made, a student has just come to check out of Development Studies. And I said, ‘ It’s good for him. You know, and I know that course is not taking the student anywhere.
He further added, βYou go to the University of Ghana, and they have a course in education that they call BA in Education Non-Teaching. They come and do their national service, and after national service, they are frustrated because nobody is hiring themβ.
Dr Adutwum further described such programmes as leading to what he called a “university degree to nowhere”.
He added that the trend raises broader concerns about graduate unemployment in the country.
Also, Prof. Kwaku Asare (Kwaku Azar), a Legal scholar and governance expert, called out Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum over remarks describing some university programmes as βuselessβ and βdegrees to nowhereβ.
Prof Kwaku Asare told the former Education Minister it is wrong to dismiss entire academic disciplines as βuselessβ.
According to Prof Asare, universities must be held accountable for graduate outcomes; it is wrong to dismiss entire academic disciplines as βuselessβ.
He argued that university education should not be judged solely by whether a programme leads directly to a specific job.
Prof Asare stated that university programmes are designed to build transferable competencies such as critical thinking, research, communication, policy analysis, project management and problem-solving.
Part of Prof Asare post stated, βGraduate employment is determined not only, and not even primarily, by the degree a student earns. It also depends on the strength of the economy.
A weak economy can produce unemployed engineers, lawyers, accountants, doctors, and computer scientists just as easily as unemployed graduates in the humanities or social sciences.
If we want more graduates to find meaningful work, we must do more than redesign university programmes.
We must build an economy that creates jobs, rewards innovation, supports entrepreneurship, attracts investment, and grows fast enough to absorb the talent our universities produce.
The question, therefore, is not whether a programme is βuseful.β
The question is whether we are building both an education system and an economy worthy of our graduatesβ.
See the post below:
π¨ Former Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has identified some useless courses being taught in Ghanaian universities.π pic.twitter.com/vhIeegmOsX
— ππ¨π’ππ ππ πππ π¨π§ (@Voice_of_Legon) July 5, 2026
