The impact of an additional year in high school on academic performance at university: Evidence from a policy experiment in Ghana

Motivation While education plays a fundamental role in economic development, the design of an appropriate educational structure, including duration of study at various levels, remains an issue of major policy debate in many low‐income countries. In Ghana, the issue of the length of high school education is an issue of ongoing policy debate. Purpose This study estimates the effects of an additional year in senior high school (SHS) on academic performance at university level. Methods and approach Using data from the two largest public universities in Ghana, the article exploits a unique natural experimental variation in the years of secondary education created by policy changes in pre‐university education in Ghana to estimate the impact of an additional year in SHS on a number of academic outcomes at university level. Findings We find that an additional year of SHS education has no impact on academic performance. We did not find any statistically significant difference in the likelihood of completing undergraduate studies in four years, or of graduating with a first‐class degree, or the final grade point average (GPA) of students who attended SHS for four years versus their counterparts who attended SHS for only three years. However, our descriptive analyses show that an additional year in SHS improves chances of students from less‐endowed SHS gaining admission to university, especially to health sciences programmes. Policy implications The nuanced nature of the results suggests the need to further interrogate the policy on SHS duration in Ghana. This may help ensure that the implementation of the policy does not end up making some segment of the student population worse off.