Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Monday, March 18, 2024

Tufts Global Education to overhaul Ghana program, implement interim plan for fall 2020

University-of-Ghana
The University of Ghana campus is pictured.

The Tufts-in-Ghana program for years has offered students the opportunity to live and learn with local Ghanaians, take weekend excursions to sites of historical and cultural significance, and to hone their sense of independence as they navigate an academic system that’s substantially different from the one in Medford

Through the program, students from Tufts have studied at the University of Ghana, a premier institution located just outside the nation’s capital. Introduced in 1996, the Tufts-in-Ghana program has since served many students well. One such student is Adaeze Dikko, a senior who studied in Ghana in fall 2018.

“I really, really loved my experience abroad … there's not a day that goes by that I don't yearn to be back,” Dikko said. “It was a really, really crucial time in my life, and I was so lucky to have spent it in Ghana with my cohort, which is such an amazing and supportive group.”

While many students have reported positive experiences in Ghana, the program has had an uneven history. Between 1996 and 2000, at least four Tufts students were sexually assaulted while studying at the University of Ghana, according to a previous article in the Daily. Included in these four cases was a violent incident of rape in the spring of 2000 which prompted the former Vice President of Arts, Sciences, and Technology Mel Bernstein to suspend the program.

After adding an extensive pre-departure meeting and hiring additional faculty to oversee the program, administrators reinstated it for the 2002-03 academic year

On Feb. 12, applicants to the Tufts-in-Ghana program for fall 2020 received an email informing them of a mandatory meeting that was to be held the following week. According to sophomore Iman McPherson, who applied to the program, the meeting was conducted in Dowling Hall on Feb. 20. There, faculty from Tufts Global Education informed the applicants that they were planning to overhaul the Tufts-in-Ghana program.

“[The faculty] said that there had been some past issues with the program and how the program ran [this] fall,” McPherson said.

Concerns about housing, academics and safety were cited as reasons that necessitated change, according to McPherson. In an email to the Daily, Senior Director of Study Abroad and Global Education Mala Ghosh confirmed this. 

“We have decided to redesign the program in order to meet the academic, cultural, and professional development goals of our current student population,” Ghosh wrote. “We are working with a variety of stakeholders to innovate a robust, intentional experience by strengthening ties to academic departments at the University of Ghana, enhancing cultural excursions, and integrating internship opportunities.” 

In the past, the program’s resident director, Kweku Bilson, led a 10-day orientation for students upon arrival in Ghana. He incorporated lessons on the local culture, its history and means of keeping safe, according to a brochure from Tufts Global Education. 

This orientation, along with pre-departure preparation, student support services and housing, are some of the program’s features that will be considered for improvement, according to Ghosh.

Ghosh expects the revamped program to be ready for the 2021–22 academic year. In the meantime, she and her colleagues are working with students who applied for fall 2020 to customize an interim plan. 

According to McPherson, the faculty at the Feb. 20 meeting mentioned that, in the interim, students may be given the opportunity to live with host families, which would differ from the typical experience of living in on-campus hostels. Moreover, they may take classes with fellow international students at the School for International Training’s center in Ghana, and not through the University of Ghana. These are some of the reasons why McPherson decided to withdraw her application. 

“I wanted to be really immersed in the university with actual Ghanaian students and professors,” McPherson said. She feared feeling isolated from other students while living with a host family. 

For Dikko, living in the International Students Hostel was one of the more powerful aspects of the program. The hostel is located outside of Accra, the capital of Ghana. 

“[Being in the hostel], that's how you're meeting people, that's how you're finding out what's going on in the city, that's how you're tapping into actually living in Accra,Dikko said.

Dikko said that it was difficult to adapt to a new environment in Ghana, but that the experience “wasn't difficult in ways that could have been better facilitated by Tufts-in-Ghana… It's not supposed to be a hand-holding experience.”

Nonetheless, Dikko emphasized that the program is not a “one-size-fits-all,” and that the experience varies with each cohort.

Given the circumstances, applicants to Tufts-in-Ghana were permitted to submit an application to another Tufts program abroad, even though the deadline had passed.

Over the next year, Tufts Global Education plans to include an array of voices, including some from the Tufts community and others from the University of Ghana, to ensure that changes to the program will be effective. 

“As always, our goal is to offer our study abroad students a transformative experience that will help them build skills and enable them to engage with the world around them,” Ghosh said.