EDITOR'S NOTE: I copied this from the International Research Journal of Arts and Social Sciences and left it intact with all the formatting as is. That makes it a little difficult to read, but it is certainly worth the effort.
Here is the link to the actual article:
http://interesjournals.org/IRJASS/pdf/2013/April/Blasu%20and%20Kuwornu-Adjaottor.pdf

Disciplined character: A re-emerging quality for graduate employability in Ghana 

*1Blasu Ebenezer Yaw and 2Kuwornu-Adjaottor Jonathan E. T. 
1Chaplaincy and Life Values Promotion Centre, Presbyterian University College, Ghana, P.O. Box AB 59, Abetifi-Ghana 
2Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, 
Kumasi, Ghana 
E-mail: eyblasu@yahoo.com; blasu@presbyuniversity.edu.gh; jkadjaottor@gmail.com 
Accepted April 24, 2013 

Introduction
While not everyone who goes to university aims at 
moving on to further study, most students expect to
improve their employability (public or private) and/or 
increase earnings with university education (American 
Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2011). Employability is 
composed of a set of achievements, skills, 
understandings and personal attributes that makes 
graduates more likely to gain employment and be 
successful in their chosen occupations (Yorke and 
Knight, 2006). In this sense employability is not just about 
getting a job, it is about keeping it. It is about graduates 
developing malleable skills and qualities that will help 
them maximize their potential in any workplace and 
enable them to realize this potential (Ulster, 2011). So, 
employers expect graduates to exhibit a wide range of 
personal attributes in addition to the acquisition of a body 
of knowledge (Harvey et al., 1997). 
In Ghana, Presbyterian Church of Ghana had 
emphasized a holistic philosophy of training that made 
the learner gained excellent intellectual knowledge in the 
head, very skilful with the hands and cherished 
disciplined character in the heart – with high moral 
responsibilities dubbed ‘the Presbyterian Discipline’. This 
meant one who received character training and excellent 
academic education (Asare, 1995) – what Astin et al., 
(2011) referred to as development of both the ‘inner’ and 
‘outer’ of a person at the same time. However, 40 years 

after the political administration took over supervision of 
all educational institutions, including the faith-based 
schools, in the mid 20th century; emphasis on “the 
Presbyterian Discipline” began to wane out from the
church-based schools. By the close of the 20th and turn-in 
of the 21st century “the Presbyterian Discipline” had 
virtually died out from the educational institutions. The 
level of the resultant negative effects of the absence of 
‘the Presbyterian Discipline’ on industry, societal and 
economic life became so highly obvious that both the 
church and state leadership declared ‘war against 
indiscipline’ (Prempeh, 2003). 
However, with the inception of private universities by 
the close of the 20th century, attempts in Ghana by some 
private faith-based universities to actively inculcate 
Christian character values in students met outcry from 
both some students and members of the public. The 
protesters tended to regard Christian character promotion 
programmes as unnecessary imposition of institutional 
doctrines on students; infringement on their religious 
freedom and interference with their primary reason for 
coming to the university. Yet, about the same time (the 
close of the twentieth century), there has been an 
emerging global movement for the formal cultivation of 
moral values and ethical behaviours in undergraduate 
education. Dalton et al. (2011) described it as a very 
interesting and unexpected thing happening in higher 

education institutions in many places. They observed that 
instead of becoming more secular and irreligious, 
colleges and universities have become increasingly 
engaged with the moral values and character 
development of their students. Bahai educationists see 
the phenomenon as an imperative occurrence in the 
developmental history of humanity, which is necessary 
for the moral and material benefits of the age (Bahai 
Topics, 2011). Thus, some employers began to reemphasize need for disciplined character as employable 
qualities in both entrée and continuing employees (ACCI, 
2002), or that graduates must exhibit wide range of
personal attributes in addition to a body of knowledge 
(Harvey et al., 1997). Perhaps, students’ protestations to 
character promotion in Ghana could be due to their 
ignorance that despite the waning down of the once 
cherished “Presbyterian Discipline”, disciplined character 
is re-emerging as an equally serious employable quality 
as their academics.