University-Community Engagement And Development Planning In Ghana: The Experience Of University For Development Studies

ABSTRACT

University for Development Studies (UDS) introduced the Third Trimester Field Practical Program (TTFPP) in 1993 in pursuance of its mandate to blend academic work with practical community engagement. This comes in handy as a resolution to most of the challenging expectations of development planning amid the newly adopted decentralization program Ghana embraced prior to the TTFPP in 1993. More than 20 years into the TTFPP, there is very little scientific work on the realization of its potential and mission. This study investigated the potential of the TTFPP towards development planning at the district level. It is a qualitative study that analyzed the relationship between the district assembly as a development planning and implementing institution and the university as a knowledge producing institution. Using qualitative data, secondary materials, a case study approach and a grounded theory design, unstructured interviews with twelve respondents, subjective insights limited to the lived experience of the researcher and the respondents were analyzed. The study found that, there has been robust consensus on the program’s impact on the students and the University. However, it was hard to find similar evidence of the program’s impact on the local communities and for that matter how it was shaping development concerns for these local communities through the district assemblies. Other findings also include weak or no working relationship between UDS and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) or the District Assemblies and capacity building. It was also discovered that the relationship between the assembly and the university had weakened over time. For instance, Students were also no longer submitting field report copies to the assemblies and communities. The study therefore recommends a formal recognition of the program in the working guidelines of the NDPC. The TTFPP directorate should also be transformed to a functional institute.