Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has intensified pressure on government over the rising cost of foreign scholarships, warning that it may resort to legal action if steps are not taken to halt what it describes as unsustainable financial obligations.
The education policy think tank says it has formally petitioned the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, urging immediate measures to stop the accumulation of more than GH¢600 million in outstanding foreign scholarship debt owed to universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In a social media post on Saturday, January 24, Eduwatch’s Executive Director, Mr Kofi Asare, noted that although the recently enacted Scholarships Law has brought an end to the award of new foreign scholarships, commitments entered into before 2025 continue to impose a heavy burden on the public purse, even as Ghana’s public universities struggle with chronic underfunding.
Mr Asare argued that the cost of maintaining students abroad is difficult to justify, pointing out that more than 95 per cent of the academic programmes being pursued overseas are available in Ghanaian public universities at a fraction of the cost. He cited a case in which government reportedly spent about GH¢600,000 on a single Master’s degree in Public Administration in the United States in 2019.
As part of its recommendations, Eduwatch is calling on government to recall beneficiaries of the affected foreign scholarships and support their transition into local public universities to complete their studies.
The group warned that failure to terminate what it terms “non-bilateral and wasteful” foreign scholarship arrangements could lead to a legal challenge over the validity of the Memoranda of Understanding underpinning them.
“No more dollar scholarships in an IMF economy. Build Ghana. Fund Ghana. Study in Ghana,” Mr Asare stated, underscoring Eduwatch’s call for a shift towards investing in local higher education.
The development adds to ongoing debate about public spending priorities and the sustainability of foreign scholarship programmes amid broader economic constraints.
