He Left Microsoft and Went Home to Build a University

In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a successful career at Microsoft, a comfortable life in Seattle, and a future that looked pretty secure. He had spent eight years working at one of the world’s biggest technology companies, helping develop software during the early days of the internet.

But something had been on his mind since the birth of his son two years earlier. Awuah had grown up in Ghana, and he was thinking about the opportunities young people had back home. He believed a different kind of education could help an entire generation create a better future.

So he made a decision that surprised some of the people around him. He left Microsoft to start a university.

He Arrived in America With $50

In 1985, Awuah left Ghana for the United States carrying just $50 and a scholarship to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Without that scholarship, studying abroad would have been beyond his family’s means.

At Swarthmore, he studied engineering and economics. But some of his most important lessons came from the way his professors taught.

Students were encouraged to challenge ideas, ask questions, and defend their opinions. Rather than simply memorizing information, they were expected to think for themselves.

Awuah had experienced a different approach to education growing up in Ghana. The freedom to question his professors made a lasting impression.

After graduating in 1989, he joined Microsoft. He worked his way up to program manager and helped develop software that allowed computers to connect to networks and the internet.

His career was going extremely well. He was earning a good living, developing valuable skills, and building a family.

Then his son was born in 1995. Awuah started thinking about what kind of future his child would inherit, particularly in Africa. He became convinced that improving higher education could help young people become the kind of leaders who would strengthen their communities and institutions.

He eventually approached his wife with an unusual idea. What would she think if he quit Microsoft and started a university in Ghana?

She supported him.

He Had Never Built a University Before

Awuah knew plenty about technology, but starting a university was an entirely different challenge. He needed to understand everything from fundraising and academic programs to hiring professors and running an organization. In 1997, he left Microsoft and enrolled in the MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley.

While studying there, he turned his university idea into a business school project. In 1998, he and a group of graduate students traveled to Ghana to find out whether such a school could work.

They interviewed students, parents, educators, and employers. They wanted to know whether families would support a university that combined practical career training with courses designed to develop independent thinking.

The response encouraged them to keep going. One of the graduate students, Nina Marini, became so interested in the project that she decided to help make it happen.

In 1999, Awuah and Marini founded the Ashesi University Foundation. They began gathering advisers, raising money, developing courses, and working through the requirements for opening a university in Ghana.

The name they chose was Ashesi, which means beginning in Fante, a Ghanaian language. Three years later, the school was ready to welcome its first students.

Thirty Students in a Refurbished House

In 2002, Ashesi University opened in a refurbished house in Accra, Ghana’s capital. There were just 30 students.

The university offered two majors, Computer Science and Business Administration, along with a collection of liberal arts courses. Students learned technical and business skills, but they were also encouraged to discuss ideas, question assumptions, and consider the consequences of their decisions.

It was the kind of educational experience Awuah had valued so much at Swarthmore. The university grew steadily. Its first class graduated in 2005, and according to Ashesi, every graduate began a career within six months.

Something especially unusual happened three years later. In 2008, Ashesi students voted to adopt an examination honor code. They agreed to hold themselves responsible for academic honesty, making their own commitment to the standards the university wanted to teach.

Ashesi describes it as the first examination honor code of its kind at an African university. By then, the little school was already beginning to attract attention for its approach to education.

The University Gets a New Home

As enrollment increased, Ashesi needed more space. The university began raising money for a permanent campus in Berekuso, a town in the hills outside Accra.

In 2011, the new campus opened on approximately 100 acres. It was a huge change from the refurbished house where the first 30 students had studied.

The university eventually added engineering and other academic programs. Its graduates began working in technology, business, public service, and industries across Africa.

Awuah’s work also received international recognition. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the WISE Prize for Education, and membership in Ghana’s Order of the Volta.

But perhaps the clearest sign of success was what happened to the students after graduation. Ashesi reports that 89% of recently surveyed graduates who accepted employment or other placements did so in Africa. Many were building careers on the same continent Awuah had returned to help.

From Thirty Students to 1,800

Today, Ashesi reports approximately 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students, with women making up half of the student body. About half receive financial aid, and roughly one in four attends without paying tuition. For a university that began with 30 students in a rented building, those are remarkable changes.

The school’s work has also expanded beyond its own campus. Ashesi now works with other African universities through a program called the Education Collaborative, sharing approaches to teaching, career preparation, and leadership. According to the university’s foundation, those efforts have reached approximately 786,000 students.

Awuah originally set out to build one university in Ghana.

Now, the ideas behind that university are reaching classrooms across the continent.