Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
Winter 12-1-2020
Abstract
Tertiary education in Ghana has experienced rapid growth in accessibility and participation. It is evident that Ghana has made some positive and impressive progress towards increasing access to education and narrowing gender gaps at the pre-tertiary education levels, yet these developments have not translated commensurately in higher education level. This study investigates the effectiveness of the directives and the Vice-Chancellors' initiatives introduced and designed to increase female students' enrolment at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The study used enrolment data from KNUST, the university’s initiatives and directives on female enrolments, KNUST recorders, online articles, publications and ministry of higher education website. The authors provide descriptive and critical trend analysis in females' share of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrolments in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, for sixteen years. Results show that the directives and interventions geared towards the realisation of the increase in numbers of female enrolment have a positive effect on increasing enrolment of female students at the University. However, the data shows that the proportion of female students is still low in the Physical Sciences and Engineering disciplines compared to males though they outnumber the males in the Health Sciences.