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A Ghana–Europe higher education partnership has successfully aligned university curricula with labour market needs, sustainability priorities and digital innovation, positioning Ghanaian universities to produce graduates with practical and market-relevant skills.
The EU-funded, three-year “Erasmus ImPreSSion project”, implemented in three Ghanaian universities, namely; University of Ghana (UG), University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) and the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), in collaboration with European partners, has modernised programmes in agriculture, energy and water resources, while strengthening faculty capacity, digital infrastructure and gender inclusion.
At a close-out dissemination workshop held in Accra yesterday, Monday, January 19, 2026, stakeholders enumerated the project’s success in bridging the gap between academia and industry, creating a model that could equally be applied across the sub-region.
The Acting Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) at the University of Ghana, Professor Daniel Dzidzienyo, described the project as a strong demonstration of the value of international academic collaboration.
He said the partnership with European universities had delivered tangible outcomes, including curriculum review informed by industry engagement, improved digital teaching infrastructure and a new state-of-the-art recording studio at the University of Ghana.
He stressed that the initiative strengthened alignment between academia and industry, particularly in agriculture, water and energy, while embedding gender equality and social inclusion into institutional practice.
“We believe we'll work together, come up with other ideas, so that we can continue to build strong relationships that will lead to many other projects that we can do together for the mutual benefit of our institutions and our individual and respective countries,” he added.
A Senior Lecturer at UG, Dr Naalamele Amissah, outlined the strategic objectives and impacts of the Erasmus ImPreSSion initiative across the universities.
She explained that the project focused on identifying real-world graduate skills, updating curricula with green solutions and sustainability modules, promoting gender equality through dedicated contact points and advancing digital transformation.
Dr Amissah said the introduction of modern pedagogical tools and enhanced digital infrastructure had created opportunities for future development of online courses and open educational resources, while positioning the project’s outputs for adoption by universities across the sub-region.
On behalf of the European partners, Enrico Tagliaferri of Politecnico di Milano acknowledged the initial challenges of working across different academic traditions and regulatory systems, but said a shared vision for curriculum innovation underpinned the project’s success.
He said reviews revealed curricula were often overly theoretical and insufficiently aligned with labour market needs, prompting systematic reforms and the introduction of more practice-oriented learning approaches.
He said the project had fostered trust, strengthened international cooperation and laid a solid foundation for long-term curriculum modernisation, stressing that sustained commitment and institutional collaboration would be critical to scaling its impact.
