Change the world

10/12/2021

Patience, passion, and perseverance have marked the doctoral study success of Gabriel Kwadwo Twumasi, who will now graduate with a PhD in Business Management at Nelson Mandela University on 15 December.   

Born in Kumasi in Ghana, Gabriel started with a three-year Post-Secondary Teacher Certificate (Diploma in Education) and a Bachelor of Education (Honours) at the University of Cape Coast.

After he moved to South Africa, he worked for the Eastern Cape Department of Education. During this time, he obtained a Postgraduate Diploma, and a MPhil degree (specialising in HIV/AIDS Management) at Stellenbosch University.

Gabriel also pursued an Advanced Certificate in Project Management at the University of Cape Town. He now belongs to various scholarly networks, such as the Council for Economic Education (CEE) in New York, USA.

Almost four years ago he started his PhD research, a time full of challenges, struggles, and most importantly, personal growth.

“It made me perspire, and sometimes, pushed me to the depths of despair. It has been a long journey but worth it,” he said.

Gabriel had a family with two young children, his studies were self-funded and he was working full time as an Economics teacher at Port St Johns Senior Secondary School.

Serious financial difficulties almost caused him to give up on his studies. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and its lockdown measures created a unique hurdle for his research on inbound tourist experiences in South Africa. He did however persevere through all these difficulties.

Gabriel’s research found that the independent and dependent variables related to the topic were statistically related. Independent variables were quality accommodation, tidiness of attractions, additional services, safety of destination, convenience retention, quality of attractions, and transport. Customer satisfaction and recommending and revisiting of destination were the dependent variables.

Business Management’s Prof Janine Krüger was his supervisor and Dr Felix Amoah the co-supervisor.

“The PhD experience has taught me many things, as it puts you in situations where you really have to work on yourself and show resilience,” he said.

Gabriel might pursue another degree soon, particularly as a result of his passion to change the world through education. He sees every occurrence and event as an opportunity to learn something new.  

Contact information
Mr Haydn Hayidakis
Department Social Media and Digital Assistant
Haydn.Hayidakis@mandela.ac.za