In 2022, there were 635 thousand students enrolled in tertiary education in Ghana, an increase in comparison to the previous year. Enrollment at this educational level has increased over the last 15 years. Moreover, the Gender Parity Index for tertiary education indicated that male students were more favored in learning opportunities than female ones.

In 2019, the number of students enrolled in Education courses (79,521) at public universities in Ghana significantly out-numbered the ones pursuing other program disciplines at the tertiary level. Business programs as well as Arts and Social Science followed, with 50,101 and 47,424 students, respectively. Furthermore, public universities recorded the lowest number of students in agricultural disciplines compared to other programs.

As of 2019, the number of students enrolled in public universities (264,994) in Ghana was significantly higher compared to other tertiary educational institutions. Private universities and colleges ranked in the second position, with 64,870 enrollments. Colleges of agriculture as well as private nursing and midwifery training colleges registered some of the lowest numbers of enrolled students in the country. Overall, student enrollment in private universities has greatly increased in the country since 2006, as the year recorded only 9,500 students.

As of 2019, male students were in higher number in all program disciplines in public universities in Ghana, with Education and Business as leading courses. Among women, Education programs also concentrated the largest number of students, followed by Arts and Social Science. Furthermore, female enrollments not only dominated in distance learning in Education and Business programs, but was also nearly equal to male enrollments in Agriculture disciplines.

This dataset is about universities in Ghana. It has 2 rows. It features 5 columns: country, city, total students, and domain.

Percentage of graduates from tertiary education graduating from Services programmes, both sexes (%) in Ghana was reported at 1.3607 % in 2019, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Ghana - Percentage of graduates from tertiary education graduating from Services programmes, both sexes - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

As of 2020, students from Nigeria studying in Ghana were the highest in number (2,960) compared to other West African countries. This was followed by Cameroon and Ivory Coast, with 271 and 258 students, respectively. Mauritania and Cape Verde were part of the countries in West Africa with the lowest count of students in Ghana. Overall, Africa, in particular West Africa, recorded the highest number of students in Ghana in 2020, compared to other regions of the world.

In Ghana, Valley View University recorded the highest number of students among private tertiary institutions in 2019, a total of 9,367, with 1,343 male students more than females. Central University followed, with 5,934 students, from which 3,022 were male, and 2,912 were female. Furthermore, Pentecost University College and Methodist University College were the only private universities in the country with more registered female students than male ones. Overall, most students pursuing courses in public universities in Ghana were men.

The ‘Building capacity for critical thinking enhancement in African Higher Education’ project focused on impact enhancement and capacity building, on the basis of the findings from the initial research grant ‘Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education’. It was therefore not primarily focused on generating new evidence. Nevertheless, a small amount of data was collected through the process of monitoring impact, in the form of a survey of participating academic staff which comprised both quantitative and qualitative data collection exercises at small scale. This data collection followed capacity building workshops in three universities in Ghana for developing strategies for incorporating critical thinking into their educational programmes. All three universities held staff development workshops and established ongoing support for lecturers.

Critical thinking is widely acknowledged as being key to individual capabilities and the development of societies. Ghana and other African countries are in great need of graduates with highly developed critical thinking skills, so as to address the challenges of poverty reduction, democratic governance and environmental sustainability. While universities have great potential for developing critical thinking, to do so effectively they need a conducive learning environment. Evidence from our earlier study 'Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education' showed that there was unevenness between institutions, but that some were facilitating rapid improvements. The most significant factors were seen to be lecturers' orientation towards a 'facilitation' rather than 'transmission' approach, a shared collaborative culture in departments, and flexible assessment regulations.

Building on these findings, this project aims to enhance impact on universities in Ghana and beyond. Through reflexive workshops with academic staff on a cascade model, it enhances the teaching practice of lecturers in five Ghanaian universities. It also aims to develop a broader transformation of teaching and learning in the institutions through strengthening of support units within universities, development of critical thinking assessments and the creation of a lecturer network. Finally, it addresses the macro level of policy through engagement with national higher education commissions, particularly in the area of assessment.

The project aims to bring direct benefit to students in Ghana, to ensure they can develop their critical thinking, and go on to utilise it in their professional and personal lives. It therefore contributes to addressing the broader development challenges of the country. Through policy dialogue in Kenya, and dissemination to other African contexts, broader impact can also be achieved across the continent. In addition, implications for other regions of the world will be drawn out regarding the most effective ways of achieving pedagogical transformation in universities.

School enrollment, tertiary (% gross) in Ghana was reported at 21.99 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Ghana - School enrollment, tertiary (% gross) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

Dataset produced by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA) containing student, staff and research output data for eight universities in Africa for the period 2001 to 2015. Universities include the University of Botswana, University of Cape Town, University of Dar es Salaam, Eduardo Mondlane University, University of Ghana, University of Mauritius, and University of Nairobi.

Publications associated with this dataset include:

Research Universities in Africa

An Empirical Overview of Emerging Research Universities in Africa 2001-2015

School age population, tertiary education, male (number) in Ghana was reported at 1471844 Persons in 2019, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Ghana - Population of the official age for tertiary education, male - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

The Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey is a joint effort between the Economic Growth Centre at Yale University and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), at the University of Ghana (Legon, Ghana). The survey is meant to remedy a major constraint on the understanding of development in low-income countries the absence of detailed, multi-level and long-term scientific data that follows individuals over time and describes both the natural and man-made environment in which the individuals reside. Most data collection efforts are short-term carried out at one point in time; and limited in scope – collecting information on only a few aspects of the lives of the persons in the study; and when there are multiple rounds of data collection, individuals who leave the study area are dropped. This means that the most mobile people are not included in existing surveys and studies, perhaps substantially biasing inferences about who benefits from and who bears the cost of the development process. The goal of this project is to follow all individuals, or a random subset, over time using a comprehensive set of survey instruments to shed new light on long-run processes of economic development. The 2009 survey is the first in a series that is intended to include 5 surveys over the next 15-21 years. Surveys will be implemented approximately every 3 years. In subsequent waves of the panel, a sample of moved households and individuals who have moved out of original households to form new households or joined other households originally not in the panel sample, will be interviewed in addition to the original sample. The number of households in the Panel Study thus has the potential of increasing due to the nature of the design; tracking wholly moved and split households. The principal objective of the panel survey is to provide a comprehensive data base for carrying out a wide range of studies of the medium- and long-term changes, or lack of changes, that take place during the process of development. The information gathered from the survey is expected to inform decision makers in the formulation of economic and social policies to: Identify target groups for government assistance; Construct models to stimulate the impact on individual groups of the various policy options and to analyze the impact of decisions that have already been implemented; Access the economic situation on living conditions of households; and Provide benchmark data for district assemblies.

• SPSS raw data - SPSS coded data - Questionnaire - Correlation matrix

The Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey is a joint effort between the Economic Growth Centre at Yale University and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), at the University of Ghana (Legon, Ghana). The survey is meant to remedy a major constraint on the understanding of development in low-income countries - the absence of detailed, multi-level and long-term scientific data that follows individuals over time and describes both the natural and man-made environment in which the individuals reside. Most data collection efforts are short-term - carried out at one point in time; and limited in scope – collecting information on only a few aspects of the lives of the persons in the study; and when there are multiple rounds of data collection, individuals who leave the study area are dropped. This means that the most mobile people are not included in existing surveys and studies, perhaps substantially biasing inferences about who benefits from and who bears the cost of the development process. The goal of this project is to follow all individuals, or a random subset, over time using a comprehensive set of survey instruments to shed new light on long-run processes of economic development.

The 2009 survey is the first in a series that is intended to include 5 surveys over the next 15-21 years. Surveys will be implemented approximately every 3 years. In subsequent waves of the panel, a sample of moved households and individuals who have moved out of original households to form new households or joined other households originally not in the panel sample, will be interviewed in addition to the original sample. The number of households in the Panel Study thus has the potential of increasing due to the nature of the design; tracking wholly moved and split households.

The principal objective of the panel survey is to provide a comprehensive data base for carrying out a wide range of studies of the medium- and long-term changes, or lack of changes, that take place during the process of development.
The information gathered from the survey is expected to inform decision makers in the formulation of economic and social policies to:
- Identify target groups for government assistance;
- Construct models to stimulate the impact on individual groups of the various policy options and to analyze the impact of decisions that have already been implemented;
- Access the economic situation on living conditions of households; and
- Provide benchmark data for district assemblies.

There were 5,416 inbound internationally mobile students in Ghana in 2022, increasing from the previous year. From 2015, which registered the highest count of international students in the country within the given period, inbound students decreased significantly in number. Overall, most foreign students in Ghana in 2022 were men, and a higher percentage of them were from other African countries.

This dataset was produced to study formal and informal credit demand by rice farmers in the northern region of Ghana. Munira Muhammed Alhassan, a student in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, undertook this study as a part of requirements toward Master of Philosophy Degree in Economics. The dataset contains information provided by rice farmers about their farm activities, farm income, farm and land assets, demand for credit and their use among many others.

A cross-sectional study assessed knowledge of and attitudes toward TCa and TSE, and TSE practices among undergraduate male students in southern Ghana.

In 2019, there were more academic staff with lecturer titles in universities and colleges in Ghana. That year, nearly 6,000 lecturers worked in such institutions. Moreover, the number of senior lecturers reached around 3,000, while tutors added up to approximately 1,500. The majority of the academic faculty staff were employed on a full-time basis and in private tertiary institutions.

Increasing number of tertiary students

As of 2020, over 540,000 students were enrolled in tertiary institutions in Ghana. The number has generally followed an increasing pattern since 2005. In that year, only about 120,000 people were registered in tertiary education. Furthermore, in 2020, foreign students in Ghana amounted to slightly over 5,700, the majority of which came from other parts of Africa.

Academic disciplines and modes of study

The most common fields of study in public and private universities and colleges in Ghana are business and social sciences. In 2019, around 27,900 students were enrolled in business programs, while 16,400 students pursued courses in social sciences. Furthermore, most tertiary students in Ghana were enrolled in regular programs rather than distance learning and sandwich modes.

Percentage of graduates from tertiary education graduating from Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction programmes, both sexes (%) in Ghana was reported at 7.6138 % in 2019, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Ghana - Percentage of graduates from tertiary education graduating from Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction programmes, both sexes - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.