PhD holder at 30, UG vice chancellor at 39: The story of Prof Alexander Kwapong - Sankofa Series

In this second feature on Ghana’s top educationists as GhanaWeb marks the 2023 month of March; a month in which the country celebrates its heritage, rich culture, and history – also known as Ghana Month, we take a look at the story of Professor Alexander Kwapong.

The professor’s memory has been etched in the history of the University of Ghana, where he was instrumental in the beginnings of the institution. He now has one of the new halls named after him.

But what really is the story of the good old professor?

Professor Alexander Adum Kwapong died at the age of 87 in August 2014, but by age 26, he was already lecturing at the University of Ghana and by 30, had earned his PhD.

Kwapong would go on to become the first Ghanaian Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana nine years after, when he was 39-years-old.

Before that, however, he become a professor at the age of 35, well on his way to becoming UG’s vice-chancellor years later

Born in March 1927 and only affectionately known as Kwabena Sei at the time, the young Alexander Kwapong pursued education so hard, becoming one of the few people to lecture in Ghana at a time when the country had not even gained its independence yet.

According to multiple accounts online, when Kwapong started lecturing at the age of 26, he was so brilliant that he taught subjects such as Greek, Latin, and Ancient History, distinguishing himself because not many people in the country could even speak English at the time.

Pulling no breaks on his academic career, Prof Alexander Kwapong’s hard work become so noticeable that ahead of his appointment as the vice-chancellor, he had served as a pro-vice chancellor of the institution under Cruise Connor O'Brien, an Irishman who was then vice-chancellor.

Upon taking up the job of vice-chancellor in 1966, he served until he retired in 1976 but that was not the end of the man, seeing that even at that time, he was relatively still very young.

Moving on from there, Alexander Kwapong went on to become the Vice Rector of the UN University in Tokyo, Japan, in that same year.

He spent the following years in Japan until 1988 when he had another opportunity to go to the University of Canada.

Regarded as his last foreign stint academically, when Professor Alexander Kwapong returned to Ghana, he continued to write about his life, while serving as the Chairman of the Council of State of Ghana from 2001 to 2005.

According to one of the online reports on the professor, he left indelible footprints at the Commonwealth Universities Association, the Association of African Universities, The Commonwealth of Learning for Higher Education and Distance Learning, Education Reforms Committee in Ghana, the World Philosophy and Humanities Council, among others.

In August 2014, the death of Prof Kwapong was reported, bringing to an end his 87 years serving humanity.

In the words of Prof Ernest Aryeetey, also a former Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Alex Kwapong’s “memoirs recount the trajectory of his career from school days in Ghana to Cambridge University in the UK and back to Ghana, followed by a distinguished international career in the furtherance of higher education and development on the continent.”

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