Building a sustainable Research Culture at Central Business School (Central University College, Ghana)

Abstract

African Universities are often challenged by resource constraints, aging faculty and low compensation regimes. These challenges are felt particularly in the area of the research output of faculty members. The problem of low research output has been documented and written about by management scholars who lament the weak showing of African management faculty in reputable journals and top notch conference presentations. This project conceived as the present writer’s Project Action Plan at the International Dean’s Course for Africa 2011/12, set about to reverse a dire research output trend at a Ghanaian Business School. The Central Business School is a constituent Faculty of the Central University College (the largest private University in Ghana). With faculty strength of about 40 in 2010/11, it had no more than 4 publications/conference pro ceedings from all faculty between 2005–2010 (representing 10 % output over 5 years). It had only 2 PhDs. At the start of this project in the 2010/11 session, the domi nant ethic in the School seemed to be one of teaching. After 2years, at the start of the 2012/13 session the picture has changed dramatically. Faculty numbers have grown to 76; 14 faculty are on various PhD programmes (23 %); 10 have attended and presented papers at international conferences (6 %); 20 journal papers/proceedings have been chalked by faculty (33 %). This paper describes the initiatives undertaken which have led to the dramatic turn in research output fortunes of the Central Business School.