BY Daniel Bampoe
A mounting financial crisis is pushing dozens of Ghanaian government-sponsored students in the United Kingdom to the brink of deportation, homelessness, and academic collapse, as stipends and tuition arrears owed by the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat (GSS) remain unpaid for months—some for over three years.
The President of the Ghana PhD Students Cohort in the UK, Prince Bansah, has sounded the alarm over what he describes as a “national embarrassment” and a human rights issue that threatens Ghana’s international credibility.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, July 7, Bansah offered a candid and emotional account of the suffering many of the stranded students are enduring, painting a bleak picture of evictions, food insecurity, mental health crises, and institutional silence from Ghanaian authorities.
Months of Silence, Years Without Pay
“Some of us have not received a single cedi in 36 months,” Bansah revealed. “Others are owed stipends for periods ranging from 8 to 26 months. This is not sustainable—it is a humanitarian crisis.”
He further disclosed that in addition to unpaid living stipends, several UK universities—including the University of Birmingham—have not received tuition payments for over two academic years.
Some institutions have threatened to withdraw students from their programmes or initiate legal action over non-payment.
In total, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat is believed to owe over £39 million to students and universities in the UK and other countries.
A Diplomatic Headache in the Making
The crisis has reached such dire levels that some UK universities have begun reporting individual student hardship cases to local Members of Parliament.
In one case, Bansah recounted being contacted by a British MP after a university well-being officer flagged the toll his unpaid stipends had taken on his health and studies.
“The officer said the matter had to be escalated to the British Parliament,” Bansah said. “That tells you how serious it is. It’s not just about unpaid money; it’s a diplomatic issue now.”
Hollow Promises and Broken Assurances
According to Bansah, the situation worsened despite recent assurances from Ghanaian officials. In April 2025, the newly appointed registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat travelled to the UK following student protests.
During his visit in early May, he met with students and university officials and promised to begin clearing arrears by the end of May, starting with a 10% payment to the University of Birmingham.
However, students say those promises have not materialised.
Worse, they accuse the registrar of returning to Ghana and engaging in what Bansah called “a scathing media tour” that misrepresented the facts and undermined the students’ plight.
Efforts to get updates or responses from the Secretariat since then have reportedly failed. “Emails go unanswered, phone calls ignored. It’s as if we don’t exist,” he lamented.
Living in Despair
The students’ living conditions are deteriorating. Many have been evicted from university accommodations and now rely on food banks, friends, or temporary shelter.
“In Ghana, when you’re hungry, you knock on your neighbour’s door. Here, in the UK, hunger is isolating. When you’re sick, it’s just you and your God,” Bansah said.
He described his own mental breakdown while working on his final PhD thesis, an episode he linked directly to 20 months of unpaid stipends.
Others, he said, have been forced into underpaid, menial jobs, especially male students who are taking on casual labour jobs — colloquially referred to as “making spends” — just to survive.
“What’s more worrying is, if men are pushed to this level, imagine what female students are enduring in silence.”
PhD Students Particularly Vulnerable
Unlike undergraduate and master’s students who may legally take on part-time work during the summer, PhD students are not afforded such breaks.
Their academic schedule is intense and unrelenting, leaving little opportunity to find legal or sufficient employment.
“We’re working beyond the 20-hour legal limit just to keep writing our thesis,” Bansah said. “Even if we want jobs, no employer wants someone they can’t depend on full-time.”
A National Investment at Risk
The students insist that this crisis transcends politics. “We are not NPP or NDC students. We are Ghanaian scholars on a national assignment,” Bansah declared.
“We’re pleading with the new government — this is a legacy issue, yes, but the damage will be theirs if they do nothing.”
He reiterated that the PhD cohort in the UK consists of just over 80 students — a small group that should be manageable for a government investment fund of this scale.
Their message is clear: resolve the crisis urgently to protect Ghana’s reputation, salvage the educational futures of its scholars, and restore dignity to students left abandoned in a foreign land.
Background to the Crisis
The current crisis has been brewing since at least 2021, when delays in stipend payments to Ghanaian students abroad first began to surface.
At institutions like the University of Memphis in the U.S., tuition fees have gone unpaid for over a year, despite a Memorandum of Understanding between the university and the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
GSS officials have repeatedly blamed administrative hurdles and funding delays, but inconsistencies in public statements have only further eroded trust.
The situation has escalated into a national and international embarrassment, with mounting pressure on the government of President John Mahama to intervene decisively.
As July progresses, the threat of deportation looms large for dozens of these bright Ghanaian minds, whose only crime is seeking to contribute to their country through education.
