The Registrar of Takoradi Technical University, Dr. Moses McLean Abnory, has encouraged students and professionals not to give up during difficult moments, saying personal frustration in his own academic journey eventually led him to earn three doctoral degrees.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Dr. Abnory reflected on the challenges he encountered while pursuing his first PhD and how those setbacks ultimately shaped his academic path.

According to him, what initially began as a frustrating academic experience later turned into an opportunity that pushed him to achieve far more than he had originally planned.

“Sometimes what appears to be a setback may actually be preparing you for something greater,” he said, recounting how difficulties surrounding his first doctoral pursuit motivated him to continue his studies rather than abandon his ambitions.

Dr. Abnory explained that the frustrations he experienced could easily have discouraged him from continuing, but he instead chose to channel that energy into further academic work. That determination eventually resulted in him earning three PhDs.

He said the experience taught him an important lesson about perseverance and resilience, particularly for young people facing obstacles in their educational or professional journeys.

“Life will present moments of disappointment and frustration, but those moments should not define your future,” he noted.

The TTU registrar emphasised that persistence, patience and self-belief are essential qualities for anyone pursuing long-term goals.

He advised students and professionals not to allow temporary difficulties to derail their aspirations, adding that perseverance often opens doors to unexpected opportunities.

Dr. Abnory’s remarks come as he prepares to launch several academic books on university governance, management and the history of higher education in Ghana on Tuesday, March 10.

He said his academic journey — including the challenges he faced along the way — continues to inspire his commitment to scholarship, mentorship and the development of higher education in the country.

Encouraging young people to remain focused even when circumstances become discouraging, he stressed that success often emerges from periods of uncertainty.

“Do not despair in frustrating times,” he said. “Sometimes the path becomes difficult, but if you remain determined, those very challenges can lead you to achievements you never imagined.”

Read or listen to Prof Abnory’s story in full about how he grabbed three PhDs while pursuing one in this interesting conversation with Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host Winston Amoah.

I have three masters already before the three PhDs. And I think to make it lighter, I think in my life, the Trinity is really working for me. You know, I attended all the three premier universities in Ghana. I have UCC, Legon, and KNUST, Trinity.

As I speak with you, I have three boys. As I speak to you, I have three PhDs. As I speak to you, I have three books and others. For me, everything by the grace of God, has to do with the Son, the Holy Spirit, you know. And the Father himself. But to summarize it, like Jacob in the Bible, he decided to go in for one wife. But tradition deceived him, after he had done the seven-year service, they said, until the elder marries, you can't. I think this can be aligned to my story, too.

As an administrator back in those days at UCC, the story went like administrators start PHD, they are not able to finish, so I joined that kind of trail.

And there was a pressure to say the last one would fail, and that is Moses.

In order to avoid my own colleagues at UCC, Legon, I thought I've just done a lot in Legon. So let me go to KNUST and try. In my mind, I was running away, but not knowing I was going to face a bigger challenge. From 2011/12 academic year, by the grace of God, within two and a half years, I was almost done, and I submitted, and a gentleman at the head of the department then sat on my thesis that I submitted for a whole year.

So, Winston, you can imagine as at that time, I had counted Yamoransa - KNUST, with accommodation charges and all that, 53 times.

And so at a point, it was like, why don't you give up? And I said, if I give up, then I have cemented that wrong perception that, as for administrators, they can't do a PhD. So on my way back that very day, crazy. He just doesn't know me. Why don't you do Plan B?

And that was just around the time when these online things had begun. So I enrolled. And by the grace of God, within two and a half, three years, I was done with that one.

So people started calling me doctor back at UCC. Then you'd be surprised to hear two and a half years I was done. What I did was collaboration. If I did my chapter one, I got people who were good at chapter one to peruse it for me. There are professors around me.

So I actually used the human resources around me.

If I did chapter three, methodology, and I felt I couldn't see it through well, I got professors in there to critique and ink it for me. So my work went very fast. Plus, what I was doing. So invariably, those guys who had helped, about three or four of them, I just want to keep their names for now, went like, we find you have graduated, but you didn't invite us to KNUST for us to…, we all supported you. Then I said, no, this one is not from KNUST, and they said from where? And I said online. And you know, Ghanaians, and the way we subtly accept these new things.

So it was like, no, we didn't support you for an online. We want an on-site. So go to KNUST and bring our degree. And it all became a laughing stock.

It's almost like, ah, you said you were going to UG. When did you manage to go outside? No, it's not the case. Okay, so I'll continue. Then, invariably, management changed at KNUST, Professor Ellis then took over. And not knowing it was not me alone who was in that kind of situation. So he invited us all for a seminar. By the time I finished presenting my work, he said, well, it went like, ah, but it's a complete work why have you not graduated? That was the day I wept. In fact, when my father died, I didn't weep like that.

So eventually, when they sat down, looked at it, they said, no, that department didn't have the expertise to have supervised the work you have done. So change it. So I had to change from patient care to quality assurance. Oh, I'm telling you. And a new supervisor was assigned to me.

You started the whole thing again?

I'm telling you, Winston. So when that happened, and this pressure from UCC, my colleagues, I eventually went back to them, and they said, ah, but that work, we okayed it together with the supervisor. So if they are now saying they didn't have expertise and yet made you go through that hell, you bring the work back to us. So I went back to Geography Department and within two years, because it was already an existing work,

I only changed chapter one to four, the introductory aspect, collected new data, analysed it, and I graduated 2020. So when KNUST saw that, (you know these days once you graduate, it's online). So when KNUST's Professor Ellis and his team realised that I have graduated, they were like, ah, but you were doing another PhD secretly, and you didn't tell us? I said, no, this was my story.

So they said, okay, fine. Don't worry. Where have you reached? And we had gone far then. So by 2021 too, KNUST's own came. So like I situated it with Jacob. Jacob went for one wife. He had to serve a number of period. In my case, I actually went for one PhD, but frustrations taught me patience and perseverance.

And I want to use this opportunity to encourage the youth of Ghana, if you have a challenge, know that you are bigger than that challenge. Even if it's about even health and you are hit with a disease, until the disease and you part, have perseverance, focus, and remain determined.

So this is my story with the three PhDs.