Examining Research Partnership Needs of Ghanaian Higher/Tertiary Education Institutions

Abstract

In the research partnership development literature, developing effective research partnerships between educational institutions calls for the construction of a ‘knowledge sharing culture' within which the principle of ‘mutual learning' takes centre stage. Yet in the higher education landscape of many low-income countries, where there are a limited number of research partnership collaborations but yet a myriad of partnership challenges, ‘borrowing' and ‘replication' of policies and programmes appear to be the order of the day. This article seeks to understand partnership challenges of Ghanaian institutions of higher learning. Using insights from self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured case study interviews conducted, the article examines: (1) the partnership needs of Ghanaian HEI/TEIs and (2) the means by which these institutions undertake their partnership needs assessments. Regarding the former of these research purposes, the findings reveal that the views articulated by participants are not any different from those espoused in the partnership development literature concerning the partnership needs of HEIs in low-income regions. Concerning the article's latter research purpose, we observe that the partnership needs assessments of Ghanaian HEIs/TEIs are largely students-driven with less inputs from staff, peer institutions and industry. Against this backdrop, we conclude that Ghanaian HEI/TEIs could amelioratemost of their peculiar partnership challenges if they make concerted efforts to broaden the processes by which they undertake partnership needs assessments.