Ghana’s higher education summit must move from talk to action

The Director of Institutional Advancement at the University of Ghana, Prof. Gordon Abekah-Nkrumah, has called for a sustained national conversation on the future of higher education, stressing that Ghana must move beyond repeatedly identifying challenges to developing, implementing, and tracking practical solutions.

He said the inaugural Ghana Higher Education Summit should not be treated as a one-off conference but as the beginning of an enduring platform for reflection, collaboration, evidence-sharing, and collective problem-solving within Ghana’s higher education ecosystem.

Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah made the call while delivering the purpose of the inaugural Ghana Higher Education Summit held at the Cedi Conference Centre of the University of Ghana on Wednesday, August 26, 2026.

The summit, organised under the theme “Universities at Crossroads: Charting Sustainable Funding Pathways for Inclusive Higher Education,” brought together university leaders, policymakers, researchers, industry players, development partners, civil society organisations, alumni, students, and other stakeholders to deliberate on the sustainability of higher education financing.

From a university concern to a national conversation

Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah explained that the idea for the summit emerged from strategic reflections within the University of Ghana’s Institutional Advancement Directorate on how the institution could navigate increasingly complex challenges and build a stronger, more resilient, and sustainable university.

He said the discussions soon revealed that the challenges confronting the University of Ghana were not unique to the institution but were shared across Ghana’s higher education landscape.

“We realized that across the higher education landscape, institutions were wrestling with many of the same fundamental questions,” he said.

Among the questions identified were how to expand access while protecting quality, provide modern infrastructure for teaching and research, attract and retain excellent faculty, finance increasingly sophisticated research, respond to digital transformation; and ensure graduates are prepared for a rapidly changing world of work.

According to Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah, these challenges raised a much bigger national question: how to build higher education institutions that are sufficiently strong, innovative and sustainable to contribute meaningfully to Ghana’s development.

Financing chosen as the starting point

He said the organisers deliberately chose higher education financing as the starting point because of the mounting financial pressures confronting universities.

“Across Ghana, universities are experiencing increasing financial pressures. Public resources are constrained, while student numbers continue to grow,” he said.

He noted that the cost of infrastructure, technology, research, utilities and institutional operations continued to rise at a time when universities were also expected to maintain quality, affordability and international competitiveness.

Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah stressed that the challenge was therefore not simply about finding more money but about fundamentally reconsidering how higher education was financed and determining the responsibilities of different stakeholders.

He identified public financing, diversified university revenues, philanthropy and endowments, industry partnerships, research funding, and responsible commercialisation of university knowledge as some of the areas requiring renewed attention.

Five outcomes expected from summit

Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah said the organisers expected the summit to produce five major outcomes.

These include honest conversations about the real challenges confronting higher education, learning from the diverse experiences represented at the summit, generating creative ideas for sustainable financing, building relationships and partnerships that extend beyond the event, and producing practical recommendations that clarify actions, policy changes, partnerships, and responsibilities across the higher education ecosystem.

“Ambition is therefore much greater than the conversations that will take place in this room today,” he said.

He emphasised that the ultimate test of the summit would not be the quality of speeches delivered but whether the ideas generated could influence policy, institutional practice and long-term investment in Ghana’s universities.

Summit to become annual platform

Prof. Abekah-Nkrumah said the University of Ghana envisioned the summit becoming an annual platform where stakeholders could return to examine progress, challenge existing assumptions, share evidence and experience, develop new partnerships and track implementation of solutions collectively identified.

“Financing is where we chose to begin. It is not where the conversation will end,” he said.

He expressed hope that years from now, stakeholders would look back at the inaugural summit as the beginning of a sustained national conversation that contributed meaningfully to building a stronger, more resilient, innovative and sustainable higher education system.

Funding crisis threatens inclusion

The call comes against growing concerns about the ability of universities to meet rising demand for tertiary education while maintaining quality and affordability.

Delivering the keynote address, Emeritus Professor Ernest Aryeetey warned that Ghana’s traditional model of relying heavily on government funding and student fees was becoming increasingly unsustainable.

He advocated a diversified financing model involving government support, university-generated revenue, industry partnerships, philanthropy, research commercialisation, performance-based funding, and other innovative mechanisms.

Prof. Aryeetey also stressed that financing reforms must protect disadvantaged students from being excluded from higher education because of financial constraints.

Government backs diversified financing

Delivering the address of Vice-President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, Deputy Minister for Education Dr. Clement Apaak, said government recognised higher education as a strategic investment in Ghana’s future.

He said the government remained committed to expanding access, improving quality, and strengthening universities as centres of excellence in teaching, research, and innovation.

He pointed to government interventions including expanded student loan support, free tertiary education for eligible students with disabilities, reforms to the National Scholarship Scheme, investments in university infrastructure and the operationalisation of the Ghana National Research Fund with an initial GH¢100 million seed funding.

However, Dr. Apaak acknowledged that government alone could not meet the growing financial demands of the sector.

He called for stronger partnerships among government, universities, industry, development partners, philanthropists, alumni, and the private sector.

‘The future cannot be left to chance’

Opening the summit, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, said the university had convened the gathering to confront one of the most pressing questions facing higher education: how to sustainably finance universities while ensuring that they remain inclusive, accessible, excellent and relevant.

She said the future of higher education depended on stronger partnerships across sectors, innovative approaches to resource mobilisation, entrepreneurial thinking within universities, industry engagement, research support, philanthropy, and active alumni participation.

“The future of higher education in Ghana is too important to be left to chance,” Prof. Amfo said.

She urged participants to think boldly, challenge existing assumptions, and contribute constructively to building stronger and more resilient institutions.

The inaugural summit consequently placed a clear responsibility on stakeholders: to transform the emerging national conversation on higher education financing into concrete policies, sustainable partnerships, and measurable actions capable of securing the future of Ghana’s universities.