Reforming African universities to transform economies

African universities need to take radical action to drive change on the continent says Ernest Aryeetey, the vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana.

“Without reform, without any intention to become more relevant, they probably could not survive,” he says. Aryeetey aims to turn his university into a world-class research institution that can help transform Ghana’s economy.

In this interview, he talks about the recent reforms introduced to raise the quality and number of researchers the university produces and explains why African universities need to “internationalise”: enter into partnerships with other universities across the world to expose their researchers to the best and newest global academic thinking.