Students career interest and understanding of corporate governance education in Ghana

Abstract

Purpose

Given the perceived weak corporate governance systems in Ghana, corporate governance education curriculum requires empirical investigations to ascertain factors that can enhance student knowledge in governance systems based on their career interests and programme of study. Therefore, we investigate whether students with a career interest in corporate governance exhibit a significantly different level of comprehension compared to those without such an interest. Furthermore, we explore whether the comprehension of course concepts differs across various business-related programmes, investigating potential variations in understanding among students from diverse programme backgrounds.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a descriptive design, we adopt a quantitative approach and survey method to collect cross-sectional data from 1,050 undergraduate students in selected Ghanaian public universities. We analyse the data using t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Findings

We establish no statistically significant difference in comprehension levels of corporate governance concepts between students with a career interest in corporate governance and those with no career interest. However, we find statistically significant differences in the comprehension of corporate governance concepts among students pursuing different business-related programmes.

Practical implications

Our findings imply that the corporate governance course should be taught practically, giving students insights into what the course entails from an industrial viewpoint. This may entail engaging experts from industry as visiting lecturers at intervals to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Students could also benefit from mentorship programmes from industry, internships and related placements to ensure an understanding of theoretical concepts from practical perspectives.

Originality/value

Our study is novel and contributes to extant literature because it is the first empirical study on corporation governance education that emphasizes on students career interests and programme of study from a developing country perspective.

Citation

Awaah, F. and Hilton, S.K. (2024), "Students career interest and understanding of corporate governance education in Ghana", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-05-2023-0109