Inculcating Community Service-Oriented Values in Higher Education in Ghana

Universities in Ghana have been accused of being ideologically Eurocentric institutions located on African soil. They were embodied in European realities and constructs and continue to perpetuate them, usurping Indigenous worldviews and dislodging their inherent values. The prevailing dictates thwart beneficiaries of higher education from nurturing community service-oriented values (CSOVs) to apply to society. Through an anticolonial framework and an exploratory qualitative approach, this paper examines how Ghana’s universities can inculcate CSOVs into higher education. Data was collected through interviews with different stakeholders in Ghana’s higher education system. The study finds that the faulty foundations of higher education, disconnection between universities and society, greed and ignorance by the ‘educated’ are factors constraining the attainment of the CSOVs public cause. However, inculcating CSOVs is achievable through localising universities to subscribe to local realities, embracing the African self, rethinking the functions of universities and initiating curriculum changes. The findings suggest an abandonment of the ivory tower mentality to search into Indigenous knowledge systems to discover community-based values for meaningful higher education.