Since 1998, UC Berkeley's Clausen Center for International Business and Policy has provided consistent support for what was first an idea and has now become the thriving academic community of Ashesi University. Over the last seven years, Ashesi has engaged six teams of graduate business students from the center's International Business Development (IBD) program, which assigns MBA consulting teams to projects throughout the world. IBD clients range from large multinationals to small not-for-profit organizations and cover a wide variety of industries.

Combining their primary research findings in Ghana with secondary research done both in the US and in Ghana, IBD teams have conducted various studies for Ashesi - ranging from the initial feasibility study for the creation of a new, private university in Ghana and a similar study for programmatic expansion into the health sciences, to an assessment of job placement prospects for Ashesi graduates.

This year, a team of four MBA consultants is conducting a market research study that will gauge student perceptions of higher education options in Ghana. A similar study was conducted in 2000, before Ashesi University was established. This year's results will give us an indication of how perceptions of various universities have or have not shifted as college-bound students face greater options in Ghana.

The Clausen Center for International Business and Policy is the home for international activities at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.