Congruence between national policy for science and humanities enrolment ratio and labour market demand in Ghana

Abstract

The paper undertook a snapshot of the demand for various academic programmes on the labour market and compared this with national policy norms for enrolment in public universities in Ghana. The objective was to ascertain whether national higher education enrolments are responsive to the national policy target of 60:40 (Sciences : Humanities) or responsive to labour market needs.  The study employed an exploratory mix-method design based on reviews of existing works, survey of job advertisements and data on enrolments. In all 120 issues of a widely-circulated newspaper was perused for job advertisements and 2536 job advertisements were recorded.   The results suggests that enrolments in public universities in Ghana are not in consonance with the national policy targets of 60:40 (Science: Humanities) respectively but in line with market demand. The study found that at undergraduate level enrolment ratios for Sciences and Humanities were 35:65 in 2002 with a corresponding market demand of 34:66 and 39: 61 in 2010 as against the market demand of 39:61. The detailed analysis of the survey results further points out that enrolments in various academic programmes also reflect labour market needs and realities  but national policy norm deviates from these realities. The stricken match between enrolment and market demand requires further attention that will realign the policy target with the reality or vice versa. This will require a comprehensive data collection and analysis on demand for academic programmes as this was found to be non-existing in the country. Key words: Academic Programming, Labour Market Demands   Key words: Academic programming, labour market demands