A Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo, has urged the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED) to redesign its postgraduate education around interdisciplinary impact-oriented research.

“If you are able to do this, we will not only strengthen the university but we will contribute to a more resilient nation that can adapt to climate pressures and create meaningful jobs for the youth”, he stressed.

Similarly, he said if the university succeeds in redesigning its postgraduate education, it would be able to contribute towards building industries that are both competitive and sustainable as well.

He made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the opening of the third postgraduate research conference 2026 at the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

Held on the theme: “Interdisciplinary research for a resilient future: The contribution of postgraduate studies”, the conference brought together many participants across universities in Ghana.

He said the foundation was already with them and that what remained was a collective decision to move aspiration to deliberate design and implementation, saying “if we are able to do this, USTED will become a template for many universities in the country to follow”.

“We exist to connect knowledge, skill, research with enterprise and higher education with improvement in the Ghanaian economy”, he stated.

Professor Owusu-Dabo mentioned that the future of postgraduate training at the university and many other universities cannot be a slightly updated version of the traditional academic model.

He proposed that the university must deliberately cultivate hybrid postgraduate programmes where graduates would lead with deep competencies in technical or vocational domains, research capabilities, among others.

“In addition to the traditional thesis, which is the requirement, we should recognise high-quality portfolios that include prototypes, peripheral innovations, enterprise models, policy briefs and community or industry impact”, he stated.

Currently, he said many postgraduate programmes remained thesis-driven and relatively disconnected from practice, saying recent analysis of doctoral education found that a large majority of candidates felt their training prepared them for academic publishing rather than for solving real technical, industrial and community problems.

“Industry and community co-supervision of postgraduate work remains an exception rather than the norm. As a result, research questions are too often framed by academic curiosity alone rather than pressing problems,” he said.

The Vice-Chancellor, USTED, Professor Frederick Kwaku Sarfo, said issues such as climate change, technological disruption, food insecurity, public health crises and unemployment cannot be addressed through isolated disciplinary approaches.

These challenges, he said, demand collaboration across fields of study, integration of diverse perspectives and the application of knowledge in innovative and practical ways.

The Dean, School of Graduate Studies, USTED, Professor Humphrey Danso, who chaired the event, said global challenges cannot be solved in isolation but demand interdisciplinary methods and creative partnerships.