This article discusses factors influencing the establishment of Ghana’s National Accreditation Board. Salient aspects are the growing population’s demand for higher education, increase in private providers and concerns about quality. Also discussed are the accreditation board’s quality assurance procedures and attendant problems.

In this qualitative study, I explored the strategies that international undergraduate students at a public research Midwestern university in the United States employ to persist and survive their educational transition to achieve academic excellence. Using Tinto’s (1987) theory of persistence as the theoretical framework, this paper employed a case study method. Five undergraduate international students were interviewed via semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings indicated that students experienced both academic and non-academic challenges. Strategies adopted included involvement in out-of-classroom activities and dependence on family and friends. Recommendations include requiring academic counsellors and university administrators to devise curriculum and programs to assist international students. Further, the teaching faculty should reach out to students who have English language challenges.

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Situated in social capital theory, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the relationship between African-born immigrant parents’ educational level, income status, family structures, and academic performance of their children in the United States (U.S.). To that end, 205 African-born immigrant parents from a metropolitan city in the U.S. were surveyed using the modified Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Questionnaire. The participants’ (N= 205) responses to the questionnaires were analyzed using Chi-square tests and the participants’ (n = 45) interview responses were analyzed using ATLAS.ti qualitative analysis software. Findings from the quantitative data showed relationships between parents’ income, educational level, family structures and academic performance of their children. Interview findings revealed that hard work and resilience to succeed, parental expectations and academic goals, parental support and investment in education, parental involvement, parent-teacher interactions, and parental educational experiences influenced parents to support their children’s education. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for teachers who are tasked to render better educational settings for African immigrant students to succeed in United States schools.

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