The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has stressed that while not every university degree needs to lead directly to a specific profession, every programme should equip students with practical skills that prepare them for employment, further education or entrepreneurship.
In a statement on Facebook, July 5, Mr. Asare argued that the value of a university degree should not be measured solely by its direct connection to a particular job, but by its ability to develop graduates who can adapt and thrive in an evolving labour market.
“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 stated.
He emphasised that universities must prioritise the development of transferable skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, innovation and adaptability to enable graduates to remain competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.
Drawing on an African proverb, Mr. Asare said, “The wise elephant remembers paths, not just places,” underscoring the need for higher education institutions to focus on equipping students with enduring competencies rather than training them for a single career destination.
His comments follow public backlash against former Education Minister and MP for Bosomtwe, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, over remarks in which he reportedly described some university programmes as “useless” and “degrees to nowhere”.
Speaking on the Konnected Minds podcast, Dr Adutwum criticised universities for offering programmes that lead to what he described as “a degree to nowhere,” accusing institutions of prioritising enrolment numbers over national development needs.
“You have done labour needs assessment of your country. You know that the country needs more engineers, they need more medical, they need more nurses,” he said. “If you don’t have a labour needs assessment that you are following, then what it means is that you are just educating everyone.”
“When I was the minister, I challenged universities about that. I remember going to the New Year School and I spoke about we do not need anybody to offer courses called Development Studies to study development. No, and It was being offered at UDS,” he said.
He added: “They have courses called Development Education. It doesn’t qualify the student to teach, and I don’t know what industry, what company is going to employ students who have done Development Education.”
“They are just filling up the spaces because they are coming and they are paying money to come, and the universities like it,” he stated.
“If you don’t revamp the whole education system and do education to somewhere and not education to nowhere, you cannot confront and solve your graduate unemployment problem,” he stressed.
