To Harvest Development from Education in Agribusiness : A minor field study of the significance of higher education in agrieconomy on the development in northern Ghana

To learn more about how higher education can contribute to economic development through the development of the business perspective in the agricultural sector, this study has been conducted from the point of views of students, graduates and lecturers of the Agribusiness program at the University for Development Studies, UDS, in Tamale, northern Ghana. Although several quantitative studies on the Ghanaian universities’ role for development have been conducted, there is a research gap within this qualitative field. From a social-constructivist perspective, it is crucial to understand the social context, why a qualitative research with open ended interviews proved to be beneficial. The findings have been analysed by the Capability Approach through the perspectives of Relative Deprivation and Knowledge Based Views of Organisations. The result of the study clarifies the importance of paying attention to the capability of the students, the farmers and the region where the higher education is offered. It is also clear from the result that there is a gap between the expectations of the students and the lecturers on the outcome of the education and the actual output. Hence, the Relative Deprivation theory served applicable for the Agribusiness program at UDS. Furthermore, the research reveals the significance of that the institutional conditions, such as financial institutions, are developed to enable the region to benefit from the education programmes.