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Creating a Liberal Arts College in Kenya was unheard of, but Awuah wanted a DIFFERENT experience. This reminded me of the interview with Slack, where they set out to create a different video game...they wanted to be different and failure didn't scare them.

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Awuah was motivated to return to Africa after the birth of his son. As noted by Sternberg, creativity can be fueled be rewards that a creative person self-conditions to respond to. In this case, I postulate that Patrick Awuah may have been motivated by creating a better system for his own child.

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According to Shekerjian, creativity involves an element of risk taking. As I read Awuah's Tweets and watched his interviews, I noticed how he took bigger and bigger swings until he was openly criticizing institutions and figures whereas before he was more of a quiet creator.

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This article is the concluding part of the interview session with the President of Ashesi University, Dr Patrick Awuah. The first two parts of the interview session were published in the April 9 and April 23, 2022 editions of this paper respectively. This concluding part presents answers to two very important questions below.

ECK: What message do you have for authorities of other universities operating in Ghana regarding your crusade to produce morally upright, innovative and hardworking graduates to transform Africa?

PA: First and foremost, authorities of other universities in Ghana should note that it is important to recognise that integrity and performance go together. This is usually true at Ashesi University where students write quizzes and exams without invigilation. When the students decided to stop cheating, they channelled their energies into working harder to achieve their goals.

They realised that by working harder, their grades would genuinely improve, and so they are doing accordingly. This is one of the reasons why Ashesi graduates do so well in the work world. Thus, working hard to achieve their goals rather than cutting corners - their high integrity.
Engaging students
The second thing is that our approach to engaging students has been critically important. Yes, we have the rules and we enforce them, but the most important thing is that we engage students in conversations about integrity and ethics. We are not exacting or preaching to the students but getting them to rethink ethics and discuss them. Ashesi's approach to teaching is strictly experiential. Engineering students design and build things, and business students design and build businesses on campus and we do the same with ethics. If you do not have a common goal, you do not have empathy, compassion and respect for your fellow citizens, when you get into the position of leadership you would cause harm.

As a result, I encourage authorities of other universities in Ghana to take the responsibility of educating good citizens very seriously because it is not a job for only families and the Church. The educational system is a very pervasive system in our society and forms the biggest part of government intervention in the public sector.
Ethics
It is important to also note that people who go through higher (tertiary) education end up occupying important (leadership) positions in society, so there is an even bigger responsibility to those of us running universities to pay attention to ethics, integrity and professional capability because most of what should be built in Africa is yet to be built.

The rate of population growth in Africa is going to be doubled in the next 30 years. Even if Africa has the perfect infrastructure and perfect institutions for our current population, it will be only half of what it may need in the next 30 years. Unfortunately, Africa does not have enough infrastructure to meet the current needs of its population, so there is a lot to be done. A lot of roads to construct, factories to build, government systems that need to be developed, processes that promote good product development and good services to be rendered. These things can only be achieved by people who are professionally competent, hardworking, creative and innovative.

That is why innovation is an important part of our focus here at Ashesi. We should be mindful of the fact that we in Africa are operating in a larger world where innovation is accelerating in other countries. We see dramatic technologies being developed; we see dramatic challenges, including climate change, cropping up. Therefore, Africa needs educated people with creative, innovative and hardworking abilities who can work well with one another, as well as work across cultures.
Vision
ECK: What is your vision?

PA: Resultantly, my vision for Ashesi University is to produce graduates who can champion the transformation of the African continent, and it is a vision that cannot be achieved by only one institution. It requires all educational institutions in Ghana to work in concert to achieve it.

Dr Patrick Awuah embarked on a crusade 20 years ago to produce ethical entrepreneurial leaders who would transform Africa. He was interviewed to solicit answers to pertinent questions concerning the rationale behind his crusade, challenges encountered during his journey so far and strategies he put in place to address them. This article presented his message to authorities of other educational institutions and what they should do to inculcate anti-corruption behaviour in their students for sustainable development.

Patrick's answers to the interview questions can be summed up as: it is not all about I am the best, it is not about running a top-class university, it is not about the usual education, but it is about meeting the needs of the continent by producing ethical entrepreneurial graduates who will bring about unprecedented changes that will catapult the continent into a realm that will curb any form of exploitation of the developed world.

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making students honest about dishonesty: a message to other universities in ghana

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Making students honest about dishonesty: A message to other universities in Ghana

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This article is the concluding part of the interview session with the President of Ashesi University, Dr Patrick Awuah. The first two parts of the interview session were published in the April 9 and April 23, 2022 editions of this paper respectively. This concluding part presents answers to two very important questions below.

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Founder of Ashesi University Patrick Awuah Jr. defines the concept of leadership on Y Leaderboard Series

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Founder of Ashesi University Patrick Awuah Jr. defines the concept of leadership on Y Leaderboard Series

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subscribe to TED Radio Hour podcast

Part 2 of TED Radio Hour episode Africa: The Next Chapter. Watch Patrick Awuah's full talk, On Educating Leaders, at TED.com.
About Patrick Awuah's Talk
In his talk, Patrick Awuah makes the case that a liberal arts education is critical to forming true leaders. This belief lead him to found Ashesi University College, an institution that utilizes a liberal arts curriculum to teach students to see the world from varying points. By framing the world beyond correct and incorrect answers, Awuah hopes that Ashesi graduates lead the continent with a more nuanced perspective.
About Patrick Awuah
Patrick Awuah left Ghana as a teenager to attend Swarthmore College in the United States, then stayed on to build a career at Microsoft in Seattle. In returning to his home country, he has made a commitment to educating young people in critical thinking and ethical service, values he believes are crucial for the nation-building that lies ahead.

Founded in 2002, his Ashesi University is already charting a new course in African education, with its high-tech facilities, innovative academic program and emphasis on leadership. It seems more than fitting that ashesi means "beginning" in Akan, one of Ghana's native languages.

Awuah is an alumnus of the TED Fellows program, having attended TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, and TED2009 in Long Beach, Calif.
About Ashesi University
Founded by Patrick Awuah, Ashesi University is a coeducational institution whose goal is to educate African leaders of exceptional integrity and professional ability. Ashesi is the first university in Ghana to adopt and blend the liberal arts method of education with majors in computer science, management information systems and business administration. It is supported by the Ashesi Foundation.
About Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
NPR's Africa correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported on the university in 2005. Quist-Arcton began reporting from Africa nearly three decades ago. She's often the first person on the ground when news breaks, but she also seeks out the continent's more nuanced, human stories. TED Radio Hour host Alison Stewart spoke with Quist-Arcton about her reporting in Africa and the stories she tries to find.

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How Can Education Improve African Leadership?

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subscribe to TED Radio Hour podcast Part 2 of TED Radio Hour episode Africa: The Next Chapter . Watch Patrick Awuah's full talk, On Educating Leaders , at TED.com. About Patrick Awuah's Talk In his talk, Patrick Awuah makes the case that a liberal arts education is critical to forming true leaders.

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University founder and 2017 WISE Prize winner Dr Patrick Awuah talks about helping students in Ghana fulfil their potential through education.

Dr Patrick Awuah is the founder and President of Ashesi University College, a private, not-for-profit institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana.

The former software engineer was the winner of the WISE Prize for Education 2017 - honoured for his passionate advocacy for empowering and transforming lives through education grounded in ethical leadership and community.

In a special interview with Theirworld's Global Youth Ambassadors, Dr Awuah talks about the importance of education at all levels and how Ashesi University College is equipping students for the future.

How has education played a role in your success?

It's helped me in my career. Going through education - being literate - has been a good tool for reading and for learning about things, even outside my field.

But the main thing about education has been that it's opened up the world to me and enabled me to become an engineer at Microsoft and now in the work that I do running a university in Ghana.

It's interesting that you started with "being literate" as the basis of success. How do you see the education system in Ghana and how effective is it?

The education system in Ghana is mixed. At the primary school level, things have changed quite a bit from when my parents went to school - my parents went to public primary schools and mission schools.

By the time I was going to school, a lot of the mission schools had become public and so run by the government. The quality was much lower than the private schools, so I went to a private primary school but went to a very good public high school.

With the education system in Ghana as it is, students who started with a private primary education are more likely to get a good education throughout their schooling years.

Of those who start with public education, only a small number are able to advance beyond junior high school.

Why do you think there is a difference in the quality of education in public and private schools at primary education level?

It's hard to say but there are many different factors, like management and teacher absenteeism, and then there are much larger class sizes in the public schools than the private.

Interestingly, some of the best high schools are public schools. It is clear that it's not just the public versus private, there is something else going on there.

As an educator what do you see are the barriers to education, especially for marginalised communities?

At primary school level, most kids are able to go to school now but the barrier is the quality of the teaching, the pedagogy and also the tools that are available to kids in school. Basic things like books and stationary.

At the high school level, though, from this year the government has made it free for anyone who can get in. They are boarding schools and there are not enough places at these schools.

We need more high schools to be built and that is a fundamental constraint that needs to be removed. And more teachers need to be hired.

Africa has the fastest-growing population of young people. If educated properly, how do you see that benefiting Africa overall?

There's a lot of work to be done in Africa, a lot of infrastructure to be built and businesses to be created. But with a well-educated workforce there are huge opportunities for accomplishing all of that.

Jobs would be available if citizens are educated appropriately and given the right skills. But if they're not, then we have a problem.

Do you see that happening at university level, a focus on quality over quantity?

I see with the Sustainable Development Goals there is global attention being paid to the quality of education, moving beyond access and quantity to make sure we're addressing qualitatively how education is done.

So this makes me optimistic that education will improve over time.

When thinking about lifelong learning, how important is early childhood development in helping every child to fulfil their potential when they go to school and beyond?

I think the fundamentals of literacy and being curious and interested in learning is important and the sooner you start with education, the better.

Getting kids to school as soon as possible, getting them to kindergarten and beginning that work is really important for setting them off on the right path.

What role, if any, do young people play in advocating for access to quality education? How do you plan on utilising their voices in your work?

At our university, quality is very important in making sure that the education we offer here is preparing people to be able to get jobs and preparing them to go on to postgraduate education.

We're very clear about that and those families that send their children here are aware of that and are responding to that commitment to quality that we have at Ashesi.

When you ask generally what role do young people have, it's difficult for really young people, for example, at kindergarten or primary school level to really have a voice. They need their parents to be their advocates.

How did working in the private sector in the United States and in Ghana influence your founding of Ashesi University and your ongoing work with young people?

I left Ghana after having completed high school and teaching for one year in a public senior high school.

After college, I worked mostly for Microsoft on an engineering team. The work was all about working in teams, solving problems, staying abreast of technology and the trends of technology, trying to imagine where technology needed to go and be a part of creating that future in technology.

Very exciting and very fast-paced. There was also quite a lot of pressure, to design, build and ship software to customers - taking projects and managing them to completion.

All of that experience has been useful in the work that I do today at.

There has been a great deal of focus on accessing technology for education in Ghana. Are the benefits identifiable?

Well, we're using technology here at Ashesi - including our classrooms, our labs, giving students access to very large data sets from other countries, giving them access to courses that they can use as a supplement to the courses they are taking here and also giving them access to tools, such as robotics platforms, and so on.

The technology that students have access to today is dramatically different to the technology I had access to when I was in college.

I think this is always going to be the case, that every year things get better and we work to provide access to emerging technologies for our students.

Technology and having access to it is certainly benefiting the students at Ashesi.

Does Ashesi offer any financial assistance?

We have a scholarship programme and in fact, half of our students get financial assistance from the university. So 30% pay nothing to come here, 20% pay partial fees and 50% pay full fees.

We have a financial aid system that enables us to provide access to a wide range of students from many different backgrounds.

You must encounter some amazing young people at Ashesi. Can you tell us a little about them?

We have very bright and very driven people here, who have big ambitions for themselves, for their families, for their society.

I think that our job here is to give them the tools to achieve their ambitions and also to have them engage in the kinds of conversations and reflections that will make them good citizens and great leaders for their society.

You have said that "a great society" can emerge in Africa within one generation and that this will need "inspired leadership". Can leadership be taught? If so, what are some of the ways in which you are teaching leadership to young people?

Yes, leadership can be taught. It is a combination of engaging students in an intellectual conversation about ethics, virtue and the kind of society they would like to see emerge and what role they'll play in making that happen.

As well as demonstrating the kind of leadership we would want our students to exhibit when they graduate or even as students on campus, we try to model a certain behaviour by engaging students through coursework and by getting them to go out to the community, working on social issues and being civically engaged.

All of that helps them to develop a sense of empathy that is important if we're trying to educate people who are going to be enlightened leaders for their society.

We also need to be giving students a set of tools so that they have the professional capabilities to progress, whether it is in engineering or project management, finance or technology, if they have the capability then they will deploy that capability when they graduate.

They will have the confidence to make the change we need to see.

What sort of "civically engaging" work are the students doing at Ashesi?

They're doing projects all over Ghana. We challenge the students to find projects they want to engage in so it's not the university telling them what to do.

There is a leadership seminar we run and, as part of that course, they have to identify a problem, which could be anything from agricultural, education, social.

We have students doing research on sustainable farming practices and passing that on, there are students engaged in adult literacy programmes, there are students who are tutoring children all the way from kindergarten up to junior high school. So there's a wide variety of projects.

Who inspires you today - in Ghana and around the world?

I don't think I could point to an individual. There are lots of people doing great work in the world that I've had the privilege of meeting and they inspire me.

I see people here who are working very hard in challenging circumstances, who are providing for their families. But, most of all, our students and alumni inspire me.

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"Our job is to give young people the tools to achieve their ambitions and help make them good citizens and great leaders"

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Dr Patrick Awuah is the founder and President of Ashesi University College, a private, not-for-profit institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana. The former software engineer was the winner of the WISE Prize for Education 2017 - honoured for his passionate advocacy for empowering and transforming lives through education grounded in ethical leadership and community.

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Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 62, No. 2, Africa in the 21st Century (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. 187-192 (6 pages)

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Patrick Awuah Jr on Turning Challenges into Opportunities The Ashesi Way | SXSW EDU

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Podcast: Springboard Zone Episode: Education in the Next Decade - Patrick Awuah

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Podcast: This Is My Era - the Podcast (#ThisIsMyEra) Episode: Ep. 37 - "The seeds of change with Patrick Awuah" with Patrick Awuah (#ThisIsMyEra the Podcast)

Patrick Awuah's guest appearances

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Podcast: This Is My Era - the Podcast (#ThisIsMyEra) Episode: Ep. 37 - "The seeds of change with Patrick Awuah" with Patrick Awuah (#ThisIsMyEra the Podcast)

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Podcast: This Is My Era - the Podcast (#ThisIsMyEra) Episode: Ep. 37 - "The seeds of change with Patrick Awuah" with Patrick Awuah (#ThisIsMyEra the Podcast) Patrick Awuah's guest appearances

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Solving global or even national-level problems is never easy, but what if these challenges ultimately boiled down to a lack of leadership? And if developing the next generation of leaders is then the answer, how can countries go about doing this? Patrick Awuah's solution was to found a university in his home country of Ghana. He is the Founder and President of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana. Patrick holds bachelor degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College; an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business; and honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, and the University of Waterloo. He has been on various "best of" lists, named by Fortune magazine as among the world's top 50 leaders, and won many prestigious awards for his contributions and work, including the John McNulty Prize, the WISE Prize, and the MacArthur fellowship or the MacArthur "genius" award. His 2007 TED talk on leadership and his vision for Ashesi University has been viewed almost 2 million times.

In this conversation with Patrick, we travel from his childhood in Ghana to his time at Swarthmore College in the U.S. as an international student and his eventual journey back home to put his experience and learning to work to train the next generation of African youth and leaders. Patrick's work is also one example of how former international students to the U.S. have gone back to their home countries and have been inspired to set up universities that draw upon the American liberal arts model.

Episode Themes:

How Patrick's time at Swarthmore College in the U.S. was transformative and how it impacted his views on education and leadership
Important lessons that Patrick took away from his corporate sector stint at Microsoft, and how he applied them to education
Why the question of transformation in Africa is a question about leadership, and how the rise of Asian economies like Singapore inspired Patrick's vision for Ghana
Can we re-frame brain-drain as a win-win situation and can student migration play a role in preserving global talent?
The impact that numerous awards and recognition have had on Ashesi University and on Patrick's work
Lessons Patrick learned when founding Ashesi University and his advice and tips for future university founders

Resources from this episode:

Follow Patrick on Twitter and LinkedIn

Other Resources:

My book: America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

Newsletter sign-up: www.rajikabhandari.com

LinkedIn: @rajikabhandari

Twitter: @rajikabhandari

Instagram: @rajika_bhandari

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13. shaping the future leaders of africa: a conversation with university founder

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‎The World Wise Podcast: 13. Shaping the Future Leaders of Africa: A Conversation with University Founder, Patrick Awuah on Apple Podcasts

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Solving global or even national-level problems is never easy, but what if these challenges ultimately boiled down to a lack of leadership? And if developing the next generation of leaders is then the answer, how can countries go about doing this? Patrick Awuah's solution was to found a university in...

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We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in this browser. Please enable JavaScript or switch to a supported browser to continue using twitter.com. You can see a list of supported browsers in our Help Center.
Help Center

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Hopewell Chin'ono on Twitter: "Many wonder how ZANUPF destroyed Zimbabwe!It inherited the second most sophisticated economy in Africa and destroyed everything.Listen here to one of the ministers in the first ZANUPF cabinet, Dr Simba Makoni.Zimbabwe became ZANUPF's LOOTING ground leaving citizens stranded pic.twitter.com/9fpGk9VIkZ / Twitter"

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Many wonder how ZANUPF destroyed Zimbabwe!It inherited the second most sophisticated economy in Africa and destroyed everything.Listen here to one of the ministers in the first ZANUPF cabinet, Dr Simba Makoni.Zimbabwe became ZANUPF's LOOTING ground leaving citizens stranded pic.twitter.com/9fpGk9VIkZ

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Many wonder how ZANUPF destroyed Zimbabwe!

It inherited the second most sophisticated economy in Africa and destroyed everything.

Listen here to one of the ministers in the first ZANUPF cabinet, Dr Simba Makoni.

Zimbabwe became ZANUPF’s LOOTING ground leaving citizens stranded pic.twitter.com/9fpGk9VIkZ
— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) April 24, 2022

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The Aspen Global Leadership Network is a worldwide community of more than 3,000 high-integrity, entrepreneurial leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sector in more than 50 countries. Because of their demonstrated accomplishments and abilities, they have been selected to be part of one of 14 geographic or sector-specific Fellowships around the world.

By being part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, Fellows commit themselves to moving from success to significance by taking action on some of the world's most pressing challenges.

The spirit of the Aspen Global Leadership Network is to move an emerging generation of leaders "from success to significance" and "from thought to action." We hope to activate a global cadre of highly entrepreneurial, creative leaders to step "out of their box" and to act to address the foremost challenges of our times - wherever these challenges may lie and however big they may be.

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About Us - AGLN - Aspen Global Leadership Network

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The Aspen Global Leadership Network is a worldwide community of more than 3,000 high-integrity, entrepreneurial leaders from business, government and the nonprofit sector in more than 50 countries. Because of their demonstrated accomplishments and abilities, they have been selected to be part of one of 14 geographic or sector-specific Fellowships around the world.

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In Conversation: Patrick Awuah & Reeta Roy

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In Conversation: Patrick Awuah & Reeta Roy

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We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in this browser. Please enable JavaScript or switch to a supported browser to continue using twitter.com. You can see a list of supported browsers in our Help Center.
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Ashesi University-- History and Mission

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Ashesi University's mission is to propel an African renaissance by educating ethical, entrepreneurial leaders. Located in Ghana, this private, non-profit university combines a rigorous multidisciplinary core with degree programs in Computer Science, Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Engineering. A student-led honour code, integrated community service, diverse internships, and real-world projects prepare students to develop innovative solutions for the challenges facing their individual communities, countries and the continent at large.

Ashesi is now recognized as one of the finest universities in Africa, with a proven track record in fostering ethical leadership, critical thinking, an entrepreneurial mindset, and the ability to solve complex problems. And in 2018, the President of Ghana granted Ashesi a Charter to operate as a fully autonomous institution; no longer to be supervised by a public university under Ghana's accreditation system. Ashesi is the youngest university to have achieved such recognition, and one of five private universities in Ghana to have a Charter.

Ashesi is a private, not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution. It is a Company Limited by Guarantee, pursuant to Section 18 of the Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992) of the Republic of Ghana and governed by a Board of Directors. The University is supported by Ashesi University Foundation, a non-profit, publicly supported US corporation as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees.

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Ashesi University's mission is to propel an African renaissance by educating ethical, entrepreneurial leaders. Located in Ghana, this private, non-profit university combines a rigorous multidisciplinary core with degree programs in Computer Science, Business Administration, Management Information Systems, and Engineering.

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Education Entrepreneur Patrick Awuah, 2015 MacArthur Fellow