In the 1990s, Patrick Awuah had a comfortable career at Microsoft in the United States. He gave it up to start a university in Ghana with a mission to train ethical, entrepreneurial leaders. Today, Ashesi University is one of Africa’s most admired institutions.
Accra
Awuah grew up in Accra. He did well at school and, in 1985, went to Swarthmore College in the United States on a full scholarship, studying engineering and economics.
Microsoft
After graduating, he worked at Microsoft from 1989 to 1997 as a software engineer and programme manager, during the company’s rapid growth.
A new purpose
Starting a family and reflecting on Ghana’s future led Awuah to think about how to develop leaders at home. He concluded that universities in Africa needed to focus more on ethics, critical thinking and problem-solving.
Berkeley
He enrolled at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where he developed his business plan for Ashesi. He and fellow students, including Nina Marini, travelled to Ghana to study the feasibility of a private university.
Ashesi
Ashesi University opened in 2002. The name comes from an Akan word meaning “beginning”. It started in rented premises in Accra and later moved to a permanent campus at Berekuso, in the hills outside the city.
A different kind of university
Ashesi emphasises a liberal arts core, ethics and community service alongside degrees in business, computer science and engineering. Its student-led honour code for exams became well known in Ghana.
Recognition
In 2015, Fortune listed Awuah among the world’s 50 greatest leaders, and he received a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2017, he won the WISE Prize for Education, a major global education award.
Scholarships
Ashesi has worked to admit talented students regardless of background, offering scholarships so that financial need does not block admission.
Alumni
Ashesi graduates have gone on to start businesses, lead organisations and work across Africa and beyond, testing the university’s founding idea.
Engineering
Ashesi later added engineering programmes, aiming to train graduates who could design solutions for African problems. Students work on practical projects linked to local communities.
A beginning
Awuah named his university “beginning”. More than two decades later, it has become a model studied across Africa, proof that one person’s decision to go home can change a country’s idea of what education should be.
