Ghanaian students at UK universities face deportion amid funding crisis | International students
Ghanaian students at UK universities say they face deportation after being stranded by their own government without the promise of scholarships or tuition fee payments.
The group, representing more than 100 PhD students, has petitioned Downing Street and Keir Starmer for help in persuading the Ghanaian government to pay a backlog of tuition fees and living fees running into millions of pounds.
Prince Komla Bansah, president of the student group, said some had already been deported by the Ministry of Home Affairs after their universities withdrew their registration for non-payment; Others are evicted from where they live or are forced to borrow money to survive.
Bansah said: “I don’t know how most of these students survive. Some of them may be working part-time, but it is very difficult to do so while studying for a PhD. From our conversations with the students, I understand that many of them have debts and are taking out loans from their hometowns.”
The petition to Downing Street says the funding crisis is so severe that some colleagues are now facing lawsuits over unpaid rent. “Some had to rely on food banks to survive because they didn’t have the money to feed themselves.”
The affected students are at institutions across the UK, including University College London, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and the universities of Nottingham, Bradford, Warwick, Lincoln and Liverpool.
Ghanaian officials say they have found inherited debts worth an estimated £32 million to around 110 institutions in the UK after President John Mahama’s new administration was sworn in last January.
Alex Kwaku Asafo-Agyei, registrar ghana scholarship secretariat He said that in Accra, the audit of all scholarships given by the last administration continues, while new scholarships to be given to England have been suspended.
Asafo-Agyei said that after his appointment in April, he went on an “information-gathering mission” to the UK and prepared installment plans with some institutions. But he said some universities have since canceled the agreements.
Asafo-Agyei said Ghana had “made significant payments to our partner institutions in the UK and agreed to resolve these issues amicably so that our students do not suffer losses.” He added that he was “not at liberty to make such statements without express approval from above.”
Asafo-Agyei declined to answer how much of the debt has been paid so far.
About 30 Ghanaian PhD students have said the scholarship secretariat has failed to pay their tuition fees since 2024, with some now barred from officially graduating, posting jobs or accessing their university’s facilities.
While others have missed support payments for more than three years, Bansah said the government had not renewed letters of support for scholarship holders currently studying in the UK.
Bansah said: “We all agree that the new government came to power in January, but the truth is that the government was already aware of the situation and has not yet made the payments.
“By the way, there is evidence that they are still giving scholarships from abroad, so why do they still give scholarships when they know there is still a big problem with England?”
At the beginning of this year, more than 180 Ghanaian students studied at the University of Memphis in the USA. I complained about missing payments from the secretariat.
Students from other countries also struggled with the same problems. Nigerian students in 2020 protested Before the high commission in London after some students lost their lecture places. Hundreds of South African students have been in Russia recently faced eviction He left campus due to delays in receiving a state scholarship.
