Ashesi University, in partnership with McGill University, hosted an event on Wednesday, 22nd January 2025, to share the outcomes of a five-year-long research project on how experiential learning experiences impact the entrepreneurial journeys of students and alumni. The project was conducted by teams at the two universities, led by co-principal investigators Dr. Nii Addy, associate director of Africa Outreach at McGill University, and Dr. Gordon Adomdza, associate professor at Ashesi.
The research teams completed a comparative study on various types of experiential education strategies at their respective institutions—spanning classroom engagement, community engagement, and internships—with surveys and interviews of students and alumni from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Rwanda. Their findings showed that experiential leaning beyond conventional classroom settings played a significant role in enabling students and alumni to pursue entrepreneurial projects.
Based on the study’s outcomes, the teams recommended that in addition to classroom learning, universities should invest in experiences that prioritize collaboration, relationships, and network building. They also highlighted the extend experiential learning and entrepreneurship initiatives to alumni, helping alumni to tap into professional networks when they graduate.
The event was an opportunity for the teams to to discuss these findings with an audience of stakeholders and guests that included colleagues from the University of Ghana, University of Environment and Sustainable Development, and the Koforidua Technical University among others.
Dr. Adomdza, speaking during the event, highlighted that Ashesi already has programmes in place that help students understand the relational aspects of entrepreneurship, citing the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship as an example. “This really shows that what we’re doing here at Ashesi, in terms of having an incubator that supports alumni entrepreneurship is really interesting,” he explained. It is something we can continue to use to engage other universities to help them support their entrepreneurs.”
