Kojo is a Doctoral student from Ghana, researching on Access to Higher Education (HE) for Rural, Low Socio-Economic Status (Low SES) Youth in Ghana.

He is also co-founder of University Avenue, an Education Consultancy specialising in University Application Counselling for Students from Ghana.

His research looks at the disparities in Access to HE, and the exclusion of Rural Low SES Youth in HE, by highlighting barriers faced and support structures provided by various stakeholders – family, friends, community networks, local politicians, government and government policies. He delineates access into various stages or “Milestones of Access,” as I call them, in order to provide a close focus on the needs of Rural Youth at each milestone or stage, until they successfully make it to the final milestone of “full access.”

Some theoretical underpinnings of my research so far include Equality of Opportunity (Roemer), Meritocracy and Affirmative Action in HE Access (McCowan), Capabilities Approach (Sen), and Distributive and Procedural Justice (Rawls).

His aim by the end of this project is to have a very clear elicitation of who the most important stakeholders and networks are, and what the barriers and support structures they provide for HE Access by Rural Low SES Youth are. This project should influence our conception of the journey to HE Access by Rural Low SES Youth and point to areas of urgent intervention at each Milestone of Access.