Over 50 Ghanaian scholarship students in the UK are stranded due to unpaid tuition fees by the Ghana government. Despite negotiations with universities, no resolution was reached, leaving students to face debts on their own. They are now crowdfunding to avoid expulsion by a June 1, 2025 deadline.
More than 50 Ghanaian students on a government scholarship are currently stranded in the United Kingdom due to unpaid tuition fees by the Government of Ghana. This troubling situation has been brought to light by David Farman, a spokesperson for the affected students. In a recent chat with Joy News, he voiced frustrations that have been mounting since October 2024 over communications from their universities about outstanding fees under the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat sponsorship.
Since last October, students have been receiving emails from their universities regarding the unpaid fees, and sadly, “the issue has not been resolved to date,” Farman said. After a meeting on April 6, 2025, between university authorities and the Ghana Scholarships Registrar, students had hoped for a resolution, but a follow-up email a week later dashed those hopes, indicating the meeting failed to yield any results.
Now, students have been informed they would be held responsible for these tuition fees. Farman highlighted a notable detail: during discussions, the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat had proposed a payment of 10% of the total debt to the universities, an offer that the universities ultimately rejected.
As a consequence of this rejection, it appears students are now stuck with liabilities that were not theirs to begin with. Farman expressed that the university has sorted students based on the amounts owed. “If you owe, and you do not have any debt, you are allowed to graduate and have your certificate. If you owe less than £500, you’d be able to graduate but not have your certificate,” he shared.
The Ghana Scholarships Secretariat program was meant to cover full tuition and provide monthly stipends of about £10. However, many of these students, arriving as early as September 2023 or January 2024, say they have not received those payments. “It was a Ghana Scholarship Secretariat Scholarship, which is the popular GSS scholarship, and none of that has been addressed since arriving in January 2024,” Farman explained.
Frustrated, students even turned to the Audit Service for assistance as the situation grew dire. “Though we appreciate that the current Registrar made efforts to engage the university, unfortunately, those efforts have not been enough,” he added.
In light of this stalemate, students are now crowdfunding to cover their debts and prevent possible expulsion. Farman noted, “We are hoping to raise over £400,000. If each student gets about £9,000 in public support, it could ease the burden significantly.” The GoFundMe account was only set up recently, just after their engagement with the university.
He called on Ghanaians, businesses, and philanthropists to lend a hand during this challenging time. The students have been given a tough deadline of June 1, 2025, to settle any outstanding balances or risk facing severe penalties from the university.
To sum it up, over 50 Ghanaian students are caught in a troubling situation in the UK due to unpaid tuition fees that should have been managed by their government. Despite attempts to find resolution through negotiations, the students are now faced with the daunting task of covering their fees themselves. Their situation has pushed them into crowdfunding and they urgently seek support from the public to avoid expulsion or not graduating. The deadline of June 1, 2025, looms, adding pressure to their already difficult circumstances.
Original Source: www.ghanaweb.com
