Dr George Asiamah has risen from a failed WASSCE graduate to Oxford University lecturer

In the last few days, Dr George Asiamah has used his social media page to share snippets into his journey to what can be easily termed a global academic success.

From his own narrations, he had a rocky start to education, earning what many would term an embarrassing failure of 4Fs and 3Es during his West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Today, he is not only a PhD holder, but he also lectures at the Oxford University, the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating university globally.

In one of his posts, he wrote:

“BECE (Chichibong) → SSSCE (Trabuom) → BA (Kumasi) → MSc (Belfast) → PhD + Postdoc (Sheffield) → Lecturer (Oxford). A quarter of a century later, the boy became the story. That truant kid from Chichibong became a Lecturer at Oxford (The World’s most iconic University).

“If I could travel back 25 years, I’d tap that little boy on the shoulder and say: ‘We made it, my guy.’ Never underestimate what grace, grit, and small beginnings can do. Sɛ wahyeaseɛ na esua, w’awie bɛyɛ kakraa!”

In more earlier posts, Dr George Asiamah has spoken about how he faced academic setbacks early on, struggling to gain admission to a senior high school due to his low junior high grades.

He shared how, with the advice of a relative, he chose a public school as his third option and was admitted, with the initial plan for him to study General Science, but his uncle encouraged him to switch to Business.

And to support his studies, this uncle, he shared, bought him a bicycle, which motivated him to attend classes regularly.

But despite his initial dedication, Dr Asiamah said his progress was disrupted when his school decided to cancel the Business program, ultimately pushing him to the point where he lost interest in his studies and often skipped classes.

And that was what led to his lack of focus, and how he poorly performed in the WAEC examinations.

For him, that result was a “disgrace.” But he was determined to improve his study habits and that came about with him securing admission to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he earned a degree in Economics.

During his time at KNUST, he served as President of the Economics Students’ Association and worked as a Teaching Assistant.

George’s hard work and dedication earned him a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development at Queen’s University Belfast in the United Kingdom.

His academic journey further culminated with an interdisciplinary PhD in Sustainability Science and Public Policy at the University of Sheffield, fully funded by a scholarship.

In a very recent post, he wrote;

“From F in chains in 2003… to a PhD Scholarship in 2018 - The 15-Year Walk from Grass to Grace!

“If you ask me now how I made it… I will say, all credit to the 2007-2008 version of me. The one who picked up the broken pieces, dusted off the shame, and quietly decided that failure was not going to be his final chapter.”

See some of his posts below:

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