Top 10 Universities in Ghana

University of Ghana

1. University of Ghana

The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian universities and tertiary institutions. It was founded in 1948[2] as the University College of the Gold Coast, and was originally an affiliate college of the University of London,[3] which supervised its academic programmes and awarded degrees. It gained full university status in 1961,[3] and now has nearly 40,000 students.

The original emphasis was on the liberal arts, social sciences, basic science, agriculture, and medicine, but (partly as the result of a national educational reform programme) the curriculum was expanded to provide more technology-based and vocational courses and postgraduate training.

The university is mainly based at Legon, about twelve kilometres northeast of the centre of Accra. The medical school is in Korle Bu, with a teaching hospital and secondary campus in the city of Accra. It also has a graduate school of nuclear and allied sciences at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, making it one of the few universities in Africa offering programmes in nuclear sciences.

2. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is a university located in Kumasi, Ghana. It is the second public university established in the country. The university has its roots in the plans of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I to establish a university in Kumasi as part of his drive towards modernization of his kingdom. Unfortunately this plan never came to fruition due to the clash between British colonial expansion and the desire for King Prempeh I to preserve his kingdom's independence.

However, his younger brother and successor, King Agyeman Prempeh II, upon ascending to the Golden Stool in 1935, continued with this vision. Events in the Gold Coast in the 1940s played into his hands. First there was the establishment of the University College of the Gold Coast. Second there were the 1948 riots and the consequent Watson Commission report which recommended that a University of Sciences be established in Kumasi. Thus, in 1949, the dream of the Prempeh's became a reality when building work on what was to be called the Kumasi College of Technology commenced.

The Kumasi College of Technology offered admission to its first students to the engineering faculty in 1951 (they entered in 1952) and an Act of Parliament gave the university its legal basis as the Kumasi College of Technology in 1952. The nucleus of the college was formed from 200 teacher training students transferred from Achimota in the Greater Accra Region. The college was affiliated to the University of London. In 1961, the college was granted full university status.

The main university campus, which is about seven square miles in area, is located about eight miles (13 km) to the east of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital.

3. Presbyterian University College

The Presbyterian University College is a private university located at Abetifi-Kwahu in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It is one of the new universities in Ghana granted accreditation by the National Accreditation Board. It was established by the Presbyterian Church of Ghana on 23 November 2003 and inaugurated on 27 March 2004 by the president of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor.

The university has three campuses at Abetifi-Kwahu and Akropong-Akwapim in the Eastern Region and Agogo in the Ashanti Region. Each of these campuses has its own set of faculties and other facilities.

4. University of Cape Coast

The University of Cape Coast, is a premier university in Ghana. The university was established in 1962 out of a dire need for highly qualified and skilled manpower in education and was affiliated to the University of Ghana. It was established to train graduate teachers for second cycle institutions; Teacher Training Colleges; and Technical Institutions, a mission that the two existing universities were unequipped to fulfill. The University was also given the mandate "to serve the needs of the whole country" and “to play a unique role in national development by identifying national needs and addressing them.”

Since its establishment, the university has added to its functions the training of education planners, administrators, agriculturalists and health professionals. The university is, therefore, playing a role that is unique and vital to the education enterprise of the nation. With judicious planning and careful execution, the university has grown from a fledgling University College to an institution of excellence and choice.

In pursuance of its mission, the university has responded to the changing needs of the educational system of the country. It has re-structured its degree program from BA, BSc and BEd in education to B.A/BSc with non-education content and a BEd, a professional qualification in Education. This is to allow flexibility and choice in its course offerings and thus cater for specific needs of students, while still focusing on its mission.

The university offers courses in BA, B.Com, BEd, BSc, MA, MBA, MEd, MSc, MPhil, MBChB, OD, and PhD.

The university, which is five kilometres west of Cape Coast, is on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It operates on two campuses: the Southern Campus (Old Site) and the Northern Campus (New Site).

Two of the most important historical sites in Ghana, Elmina and Cape Coast Castle, are only a few kilometres from the university. The establishment of the university was a befitting tribute to this historic town and the cradle of education in Ghana. Cape Coast is now a growing tourist town with rich history and monuments.

5. Ashesi University College
Ashesi University is a private, secular, liberal arts college in Berekuso, a town near Aburi, an hour's drive from Ghana's capital, Accra. The university opened in March 2002, founded by Patrick Awuah, Jr., a graduate of Swarthmore College and Haas School of Business.

 Ashesi's mission is to train a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial business leaders in Africa and to nurture excellence in scholarship, leadership and citizenship. Ashesi, which means "beginning" in the Akan language is a new beginning for higher education in Ghana. The university is accredited by the Ghanaian National Accreditation Board[1] and features a four-year bachelors program grounded in a liberal arts core curriculum, offering degrees in Business Administration, Management Information Systems and Computer Science.

 With an academic program designed in collaboration with 24 professors from Swarthmore College, University of California, Berkeley and University of Washington, Ashesi offers an educational experience unlike
anything else available in West Africa today.

Ashesi was founded by G. Patrick Awuah, Jr., a Ghanaian who had spent over 15 years living and working in the United States. Awuah left Ghana in 1985 to attend Swarthmore College on a full scholarship, after which he worked for Microsoft Corporation as an engineer and a program manager for eight years. Experiencing firsthand the dramatic impact that education can have on one's life, Awuah embarked on a mission in 1997 to provide greater educational opportunities in Ghana. He enrolled at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, both to evaluate the feasibility of his goal and to gain a broader range of managerial skills with which to found and manage a university.

In 2009, Awuah won the John P. McNulty Prize for founding Ashesi University.The McNulty Prize is a $100,000 grant that recognises the most outstanding, innovative, replicable and self-sustainable projects to address social problems. The prize is open to all Fellows of the Aspen Institute.

7. Central University College

The Central University College was founded by the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) in Accra, Ghana. It started off as a pastoral training institute in 1988. It was then known as the Central Bible College by June 1991. It later became the Central Christian College in 1993 and eventually became the Central University College in 1997. Among the stated aims of the university is to provide an "integrated and biblically-based tertiary education with particular reference to the needs of the African continent".It is currently the biggest private university in Ghana.

In 1988, the Central Bible College was born. In 1993, it became the Christian University College and became the Central University College (CUC) in the year 1997 after a change of name.

Central University College (CUC) is the first privately owned university colleges in Ghana. Owned by the International Central Gospel Church, its founder and Chancellor, Rev. Dr. Mensa Otabil[3] has within the last two decades, emerged as a leading voice in African Christianity advocating for a proper synthesis of Christian religious expression and the translation of spirituality into practical everyday action. The Idea of CUC was birthed in 1988.

CUC started as a short-term pastoral training institute mainly for pastors of ICGC. It became a Christian University College in 1993 expanding its programs over the years to include the academic study of Christian Theology, Business Administration, Economics, Computer Science and a select number of modern languages including French. Most of its current programs are offered up to the graduate level and has seen the establishment of the schools of architecture and pharmacy in the 2008/2009 academic year. In 1998, the university college was accredited by the[4] (NAB). A Ghanaian newspaper feature on CUC that appeared in The Spectator of Saturday 16 October 2007 described CUC as "a University college in a class of its own". The Valley View University of the Seventh Day Adventist Church was established before CUC but the latter was the first private university to run a weekend school that affords workers the flexibility of combining work and study in their desire to improve their education.

Ten (10) years down the line, CUC's development has been phenomenal with the construction of a permanent campus in Miotso, near Dahwenya. On 26 October 2007 CUC relocated a greater part of its campus from the heart of Accra, the capital to Miotso a community near Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region.

The University's first Registrar Mr. Johnson Kanda was the first employee of the university who drafted and put together almost all the documentation needed for the university he served a period of 10 years between 1998 and 2008.

The university's chancellor Rev. Dr. Mensa Otabil is the Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) The university's past President V. P. Y. Gadzekpo, FGA had been president since 15 September 2004 till 2012. He took over from Rev. Prof. Kingsley Larbi who was the principal of Central Christian College, Ghana. His distinguished pioneering efforts at the then Central Christian College led to the establishment of Central University College, Ghana, where he served as its first President or Vice-Chancellor from November 1998 until July 2003. The university is now headed by Prof. Kwesi Yankah, who serves as the university's new president. He took over from Prof V. P. Y. Gadzekpo, FGA on 1 September 2012.

8. Ghana Technology University College

Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC) is a fully accredited university founded in 2005 by Ghana Telecom, the national telecommunications company. Vodafone, a British telecom company, acquired GT in 2008, and the university college was expected to become an independent institution in late 2009.

The university was established to provide first degrees (bachelor's) and graduate programs, particularly in Telecommunications Engineering and Information and Communications Technologies. It also offers certificate programs, with courses that provide credit for the bachelor's degree, and a wide assortment of professional development seminars and workshops.

A School of Business opened in January 2009. First degrees in business include Bachelor of Science in Business and Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship. A Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Technology is offered.

In addition, the first group of graduates recently[when?] received master of science degrees from the Technical University of Denmark. The programme was offered at the GTUC campus in Accra via broadband telecommunications.

Programmes are under development with other strategic educational partners, including Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Ghana; AFRALTI, Kenya; The Open University, United Kingdom; DePaul University, USA; Aalborg University, Denmark; St. Mary's College of Maryland, USA; Antioch University, USA; University of California, Santa Barbara, California; Information Communication Technology (ICU), South Korea; University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom; Wildau Institute of Technology, Germany

Since its first class of 350 students matriculated in fall 2006, GTUC has increased its enrollment to about 1,500 students, with 2,000 expected in fall 2009.

GTUC's main campus is in the Tesano section of Accra, Republic of Ghana. A second campus has been opened in nearby Abeka, a nearby Accra suburb.

9. All Nations University

All Nations University was founded by Rev. Dr. Samuel Donkor in Ghana. It began with 37 students in October 2002 and has now expanded to over 3000 students.It became an accredited university in Ghana in October 2005.The university is affiliated to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and in collaboration with SRM University (India).

10.Valley View University

The Valley View University is a private university located at Oyibi in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. It forms part of a worldwide system of over 100 tertiary institutions operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Valley View University was established in 1979 by the West African Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventists (now Ghana Union Conference). In 1997 it was absorbed into the Adventist university system operated by the West-Central Africa Division (WAD) with headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The Ghana Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (organized in 2000) serves as the local manager of the university.

The university began as the Adventist Missionary College and was located in Bekwai-Ashanti. It was transferred to Adentan near Accra in 1983 where it operated in rented facilities until it was relocated to its present site near Oyibi (19 miles down Accra-Dodowa Road). In 1989 and was renamed Valley View College.

The Adventist Accrediting Association (AAA) has, since 1983, been evaluating and reviewing the accreditation status of the institution. In 1995, the university was affiliated to Griggs University in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. This allowed the university to offer four year bachelors degrees in Theology and Religious Studies. The National Accreditation Board (Ghana) granted it national accreditation in 1995 thus allowing the university to award her own degrees. Thus, Valley View University became the first private institution in Ghana to be granted national accreditation.

Valley View University has the singular distinction of being the first private university in Ghana to be granted a Charter. Valley View University received its Charter from President John Kufuor (President of Ghana), at a special function on 28 May 2006. A “Chartered” institution implies one that has been granted certain rights and privileges by the president or the legislature of Ghana. To obtain this legal status, the institute's statutes, examination procedures, quality assurance standards are subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.