About TALI
The graduate school of Southshore university College.
TALI Graduate School is the academic unit responsible for postgraduate education, research training and the coordination of master's, professional and doctoral programmes across the University College. Awards are conferred by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the awarding institution, under accreditation by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC).
What TALI stands for
TALI is The Africa Leadership Institute— the graduate school of Southshore university College. The name signals our purpose: to form, at master’s and doctoral level, the scholar-practitioners and venture-builders who will lead Africa and the world.
Mandate
TALI Graduate School coordinates every postgraduate programme of Southshore university College. Its mandate, drawn from the University Statutes, is to safeguard the academic standard of all graduate programmes; to provide structured research training; to supervise the admission, progression and examination of postgraduate candidates; and to advance the University’s research mission through doctoral training, peer-reviewed publication and engaged scholarship. All awards are conferred by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the awarding institution, under GTEC accreditation.
Brief history
TALI was established alongside Southshore university College itself, written into the institution’s founding Statutes as the academic home for all postgraduate work. From its inaugural cohort, the Graduate School has held the line on three commitments: rigorous research training, employer-engaged programme design, and the formation of leaders whose work begins in Africa and travels outward.
Vision
To be the institution that the most capable students choose, the most respected employers trust, and from which Africa’s most transformative leaders graduate.
Mission
To deliver postgraduate education of uncompromising standard — admitting on merit, supervising with care, examining without fear or favour, and conferring awards that signify demonstrated mastery. We pursue research that addresses Africa’s pressing questions, publish in peer-reviewed venues, and partner with employers whose problems anchor our teaching in reality.
Purpose
To equip every learner — and through them, every community — to shape what comes next: through competence that is genuine, character that is tested, courage that is earned, and innovation that is African in origin and universal in ambition.
Motto
Ex Africa, Nova Lux
From Africa, A New Light.
The motto declares that the continent’s peoples, cultures, wisdom and creativity — not imported models or consumer dependence — are the wellspring of transformative knowledge and global leadership in thought and innovation. It signals Southshore’s deliberate break with conventional education that has overlooked this foundation, and its commitment to forming leaders who draw from Africa’s own well to enlighten the world.
A word from the Dean
“A graduate degree from TALI is a covenant. We promise you supervision that takes your work seriously, examination that takes your standing seriously, and a community that takes your future seriously. In return, we ask only that you bring the discipline and the courage the work demands.”
Core Values (TEASE)
T — Trustworthiness
We act with integrity, honesty and accountability in all our dealings.
E — Experience
We prize learning that is practical, reflective and grounded in real-world engagement.
A — Authority
We pursue rigorous scholarship and disciplined expertise that earns the trust of our communities.
S — Success
We hold ourselves to high standards of achievement, stewardship and measurable impact.
E — Expertise
We cultivate and apply deep, disciplined mastery that advances the frontiers of knowledge.
TALI by the numbers
12+
Graduate programmes
180+
Postgraduate candidates
48
Faculty supervisors
8
Subject domains
Research themes
Doctoral and master’s-by-research candidates are recruited around themes where the University holds distinctive expertise and where Africa most needs original work:
Accreditation & quality assurance
All TALI programmes are accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and awards are conferred by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the awarding institution. Programmes are reviewed on the University’s standard quinquennial cycle, with external examiners drawn from peer institutions in Africa, Europe and North America. Professional doctorates and discipline-specific awards (e.g. MBA, MPH, LLM) are additionally subject to the relevant professional accrediting bodies.
Partnerships
TALI’s employer-engaged philosophy is realised through standing partnerships with industry, the public sector and peer universities. These partners host placements, co-supervise applied dissertations, sponsor doctoral fellowships and sit on programme advisory boards — ensuring graduate work is tested against the problems institutions are actually trying to solve.
Educational Philosophy
Formation
over head knowledge
Education forms the whole person — character, judgement and skill — not merely the mind.
Outcomes
over credentials
Demonstrated capability and impact matter more than accumulated certificates.
Employer-engaged
over classroom-bound
Every programme is anchored in active industry partnership and oriented toward venture creation.
“A whole person - characterised by character, courage, and competence, demonstrated through tangible outcomes, prepared to establish and lead an enterprise, industry or society.”
Subject domains within TALI
TALI does not coordinate Schools. It is organised into the same disciplinary areas — here called subject domains — that structure the undergraduate Schools of the University College. Faculty supervision and discipline-specific assessment sit with the domain; admission, regulations and examination are administered by TALI.
Computing & AI
Business & Leadership
Health Sciences & Management
Design, Engineering & Smart Systems
African Studies & Humanities
Media & Creative Industries
Law
Statistics & Data Science
Each domain mirrors its undergraduate School and contributes the master’s, professional-doctorate and PhD pathways within its discipline.
How TALI is governed
TALI is led by a Dean of the Graduate School, appointed under the University Statutes, supported by a Board of Graduate Studies that includes the Heads of contributing Schools, two senior professorial members, the University Librarian, the Registrar (ex officio) and two postgraduate student representatives. The Doctoral Committee, a sub-committee of the Board, reviews all PhD and professional-doctorate admissions, supervision arrangements and viva outcomes.
See Governance for the full structure and the Regulations page for the rules under which we operate.