Evaluation of the Performance of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Mines, Tarkwa

Abstract

This study was aimed at evaluating the performance of the KNUSTSM, Tarkwa, for the period that it has existed as a tertiary institution todate, a time span of twenty-five years. The School will celebrate, in October 2001, its silver jubilee of nurturing by the mother university, KNUST, Kumasi. Even though it is at the threshold of becoming a University College, no formal evaluation has been made about how the School has so far performed. The study also sought to establish whether the experience of KNUSTSM, Tarkwa, as a nurtured institution could be used as a model for some other institutions in the country which could go through similar process into maturity. The study was done under the relevant aspects of the broad policy objectives of the reforms to the tertiary education system of Ghana (1990) which were also evaluated in 1998. It was hypothesised that the KNUSTSM, Tarkwa, had not performed well; neither had it justified the mission for which it was established. The four broad criteria of evaluating higher education institutions as propounded by Ramson, Khoo and Selvaratnam (1993) and a fifth criterion identified by the researcher, were employed to evaluate the School. The five broad evaluation criteria were broken further into twenty-nine sub-areas. Twenty two of the assessment criteria indicated positive performance of the School. Four of them proved negative and three of the items went in between positive and negative which means that they were debatable. With twenty-two out of twenty nine items being positive indicators, the hypothesis has been proved wrong. The results clearly demonstrated that KNUSTSM, Tarkwa has performed excellently and has justified the mission for which it was set up. The results of the study have been summarised in a framework matrix. The shortcomings of the School have been identified in the study and suggestions have been offered for redress as the School prepares itself to become a University College.