Some University Degrees Are Useless – Adutwum

Former Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has ignited a fierce national controversy after branding some university degree programmes in Ghana as “useless,” claiming they only leave graduates with certificates but no jobs.

Speaking on the Konnected Minds Podcast, Dr Adutwum accused some universities of prioritising student enrolment and tuition fees over Ghana’s workforce needs by offering programmes that leave graduates unemployed.

According to him, universities should admit students based on a national labour market assessment to produce graduates in areas where the country needs manpower, such as engineering, medicine, and nursing.

“If you don’t have a labour needs assessment that you are following, then what it means is that you are just educating everyone,” he stated.

The former minister singled out Development Studies at the University for Development Studies (UDS) and BA Education (Non-Teaching) at the University of Ghana as examples of programmes he believes offer little employment prospects.

He revealed that while serving as Education Minister, he openly challenged UDS over its Development Studies programme.

“I said we do not need anybody to offer courses called Development Studies to study development,” he recalled.

Dr Adutwum disclosed that after making those remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of UDS informed him that one student had withdrawn from the programme.

“I said it’s good for him because that course is not taking the student anywhere,” he said.

He also criticised Development Education programmes, arguing they neither qualify graduates to teach nor prepare them for any clearly defined industry.

Turning to the University of Ghana, Dr Adutwum questioned the relevance of the BA Education (Non-Teaching) programme.

“After national service, they are frustrated because nobody is hiring them. University degree to nowhere,” he lamented.

He accused some universities of introducing such programmes simply to fill lecture halls and generate revenue.

“They are just filling up the spaces because students are paying money, and the universities like it,” he charged.

Dr Adutwum called on the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to align university programmes with Ghana’s manpower requirements, arguing that such reforms would help tackle graduate unemployment.

He cited India’s investment in Information Technology education as an example Ghana should emulate.

“If you don’t revamp the whole education system and do education to somewhere and not education to nowhere, you cannot solve graduate unemployment,” he stressed.

Experts Push Back

But the former minister’s comments have drawn sharp criticism from education experts and policy analysts.

Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, argued that not every university programme must lead directly to a single profession.

According to him, the real measure of a degree is whether it equips students with skills for employment, entrepreneurship, or further education.

“Not 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,” he wrote on Facebook.

Legal scholar and governance expert Prof. Kwaku Asare (Kwaku Azar) also rejected Dr Adutwum’s description of the programmes as “useless.”

He described the comments as overly simplistic, insisting that many academic disciplines develop valuable transferable skills, including critical thinking, research, communication, project management, and policy analysis.

Prof. Asare noted that graduates of Development Studies work in government, NGOs, international organisations, consulting firms, and research institutions, while graduates of BA Education (Non-Teaching) contribute to education policy, curriculum development, administration, educational technology, and public service.

He argued that the real challenge is ensuring universities continuously update their curricula to meet changing labour market demands rather than dismissing entire disciplines.

Prof. Asare also called for regular curriculum reviews, publication of graduate employment outcomes, and stronger emphasis on digital, analytical, and entrepreneurial skills.

He further cautioned that graduate unemployment cannot be blamed solely on universities, pointing out that Ghana’s broader economic conditions also determine job creation.

The controversy has since sparked widespread public debate over whether universities should focus primarily on producing job-ready graduates or continue offering broad academic programmes that develop versatile skills for an evolving economy.