Education remains one of the most powerful instruments for national development.

For decades, Ghana has awarded scholarships to enable citizens to acquire knowledge and professional skills both at home and abroad.

Many beneficiaries have returned to contribute significantly to public administration, medicine, engineering, education, science, business and national development.

The value of scholarships is therefore not in dispute.

What requires urgent reconsideration is how Ghana decides which programmes should be funded abroad and which should be pursued within the country.

Today, public funds are sometimes used to sponsor Ghanaians to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate programmes overseas even though the same or substantially similar programmes are available in accredited Ghanaian universities.

In a country struggling to finance educational infrastructure, laboratories, research, student accommodation and faculty development, this approach deserves serious policy scrutiny.

The International Human Rights Protection Service believes that government-funded foreign scholarships should, as a general rule, be reserved for specialised and strategically important programmes that are genuinely unavailable in Ghana or cannot yet be delivered locally at the required technical standard.

This is not an argument against international education. It is an argument for responsible national investment.

The real cost of a foreign scholarship

The cost of educating one student abroad extends far beyond tuition.

It may include airfare, accommodation, monthly living allowances, health insurance, visa fees, books, research expenses and other charges denominated in foreign currency.

The same money could potentially support several students in Ghana or help a local university acquire equipment that would benefit hundreds of students over many years.

Every scholarship decision therefore carries an opportunity cost. When Ghana pays for a student to pursue abroad a programme already available at the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Coast, the University for Development Studies, a technical university or another accredited institution, the country must ask a simple question: what additional national value are we purchasing?

If the answer is merely the prestige of a foreign qualification, then the expenditure cannot easily be justified from the public purse.

According to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, the country now has hundreds of accredited tertiary institutions and thousands of accredited programmes.

This demonstrates that Ghana’s capacity to deliver university and professional education has expanded considerably.

Yet our universities continue to face shortages of modern laboratories, research grants, specialised equipment, digital resources, student accommodation and adequately funded postgraduate programmes.

Sending more public money abroad for courses that can be studied locally weakens the very institutions Ghana needs for its long-term development.

First degrees should normally be studied in Ghana

Except under special bilateral arrangements that impose little or no financial burden on Ghana, government-funded foreign scholarships for first-degree programmes should become the exception.

Ghanaian universities offer programmes in business administration, law, economics, political science, education, communication, information technology, agriculture, nursing, engineering and many other disciplines commonly pursued abroad.

Where an accredited and reasonably comparable undergraduate programme exists in Ghana, the state should ordinarily sponsor the student locally.

A person’s freedom to study abroad with private funding would remain untouched.

The proposed restriction should apply principally to scholarships financed wholly or substantially from Ghana’s public resources.

Public scholarship policy must distinguish between an individual’s desire for international exposure and the country’s obligation to obtain value for money.

The state cannot satisfy every personal educational preference, especially when many qualified young Ghanaians are unable to enter or complete university because of financial hardship.

The Ghana Scholarships Authority identifies both local and foreign scholarship pathways and has a statutory mandate under the Ghana Scholarships Authority Act, 2025 (Act 1149), to administer government scholarships transparently and equitably.

The establishment of the Authority provides an excellent opportunity to redesign foreign scholarship policy around national skills priorities, equity and measurable public benefit.

When should Ghana fund overseas study?

Foreign scholarships remain necessary. No country can provide every specialised programme or research facility within its borders.

Overseas study should consequently be funded where it fills an identifiable national capacity gap.

Priority areas may include highly specialised medicine, advanced biomedical research, nuclear science, artificial intelligence, robotics, aerospace engineering, maritime technology, semiconductor engineering, cybersecurity, climate science, specialised mineral processing, renewable-energy systems and other emerging fields where adequate local capacity is unavailable.

Even within these fields, awards should respond to evidence, not assumptions. Ghana should maintain a regularly updated National Skills Gap and Specialised Programmes Register showing:

the expertise the country urgently requires;
the programmes currently available in Ghana;
gaps in local teaching, equipment and research capacity;
the number of specialists required over a defined period; and
the institutions or sectors in which beneficiaries will work after their studies.

Foreign scholarships should then be awarded against this register.

This would prevent scholarship decisions from being driven by political influence, personal connections, institutional habit or the attractiveness of a foreign destination.

Bring the knowledge home

A scholarship cannot be considered successful merely because a beneficiary graduates.

Its real value lies in how the acquired knowledge is applied to Ghana’s development.

Recipients of fully funded foreign scholarships should therefore sign enforceable agreements requiring them to return to Ghana and serve in designated institutions or priority sectors for a reasonable period.

The government must also ensure that appropriate positions, research facilities and professional opportunities are available when they return.

It would be wasteful to sponsor a Ghanaian in a highly specialised discipline only for the person to return to a system without the equipment, funding or institutional support needed to apply that knowledge.

It is equally wasteful when publicly funded graduates remain abroad without providing any structured service to the country.

Return obligations should nevertheless be implemented humanely. Beneficiaries should not simply be threatened with penalties.

They should be offered clear career pathways, proper placement, opportunities for research and working conditions that make national service meaningful.

Turn scholarship spending into institutional capacity

Where a programme is available locally, the scholarship allocation should follow the student into the Ghanaian institution.

Part of the funding should cover tuition and appropriate student support, while another part should strengthen the department delivering the programme.

This could finance:

modern laboratories and workshops;
digital libraries and academic databases;
postgraduate research grants;
visiting professors and international faculty exchanges;
professional accreditation;
curriculum development;
joint degrees with reputable foreign universities;
research commercialisation; and
training and retention of Ghanaian lecturers.

Such an arrangement transforms scholarship expenditure from a one-person benefit into a lasting national asset.

Instead of repeatedly sending students overseas to acquire the same expertise, Ghana can use targeted partnerships to establish that expertise locally.

A foreign university could help a Ghanaian institution develop a programme, train lecturers, design laboratories and jointly supervise the first groups of postgraduate students.

Over time, Ghana would become capable of training its own specialists and students from neighbouring countries.

That is how scholarship expenditure can generate institutional independence.

Scholarships must also advance equality

Scholarship policy is a human-rights and social-justice issue. Public educational opportunities should not become privileges for individuals with political access, influential relatives or the ability to navigate complicated administrative systems.

The Constitution’s commitment to equality and educational opportunity requires scholarship administration to be fair, transparent and directed towards legitimate public needs.

Brilliant but disadvantaged students, persons with disabilities, applicants from underserved districts and candidates entering nationally important disciplines must be given meaningful consideration.

The official Local Tertiary Scholarship programme already supports qualified Ghanaian students studying in accredited institutions within the country. Strengthening this route would enable government to assist a larger number of citizens while keeping public expenditure within Ghana’s educational economy.

Transparency is equally important. The Scholarships Authority’s public database, which records beneficiaries, courses, institutions, countries and award years, is a useful foundation for stronger accountability.

It should be developed into a comprehensive public reporting system showing the cost of each award, the basis for selecting the programme, whether an equivalent exists in Ghana and the beneficiary’s post-study service obligation.

Lessons from previous scholarship administration

Ghana has already received warnings about the financial and governance risks associated with poorly controlled scholarship expenditure.

A performance audit by the Auditor-General found serious problems in the administration of foreign scholarships by GETFund and concluded that money spent abroad could have supported many more Ghanaians in tertiary education.

The purpose of recalling this finding is not to condemn every foreign scholarship or every past beneficiary.

It is to emphasise that scholarship administration must be governed by legality, fairness, national relevance and value for money.

The new architecture must avoid fragmentation and duplication among the Scholarships Authority, GETFund, ministries, state institutions and other public bodies.

All government-financed scholarship awards should fall under a common national policy, transparent criteria and consolidated reporting arrangements.

A proposed “local first, strategic abroad” policy

IHRPS proposes the adoption of a Local First, Strategic Abroad Policy based on the following principles:

First, public funding for undergraduate education should ordinarily be restricted to accredited institutions in Ghana.

Second, a foreign scholarship should not be approved where a substantially equivalent accredited programme of suitable quality is available locally, unless there is a compelling and publicly defensible reason.

Third, foreign awards should concentrate on postgraduate research, advanced technical training and specialised disciplines linked to Ghana’s development priorities.

Fourth, scholarships offered and funded entirely by foreign governments or institutions may be accepted, provided the programmes are accredited, relevant and do not create unreasonable financial obligations for Ghana.

Fifth, every publicly funded foreign award should be supported by a documented cost-benefit assessment.

Sixth, beneficiaries should have transparent return-and-service obligations, together with credible placement arrangements.

Seventh, an agreed portion of savings from reduced foreign scholarship expenditure should be placed in a ring-fenced fund for laboratories, research, faculty development and specialised programmes in Ghanaian universities.

Finally, annual scholarship reports should be laid before Parliament and made accessible to the public.

This is not academic isolation

Some may argue that limiting foreign scholarships will deny Ghanaian students’ international exposure.

That concern is understandable, but the proposed policy is not a call for academic isolation.

International exposure can be obtained through exchange semesters, joint research, short technical programmes, professional attachments, visiting faculty arrangements, split-site doctoral training and institutional partnerships.

These options may cost less while ensuring that knowledge is transferred directly to Ghanaian universities.

Nor should the proposal be interpreted as claiming that every programme bearing the same name offers the same quality.

Programme content, facilities, faculty expertise, research capacity and professional recognition must all be assessed.

Where a local programme exists in name but lacks the facilities required for advanced training, a carefully justified foreign award may still be appropriate.

The policy must be firm, but it must also be intelligent.

The choice before Ghana

Ghana must decide whether scholarship expenditure will continue primarily as a means of sending individuals abroad or become a strategic instrument for building national capacity.

A country does not develop merely by producing citizens with foreign certificates.

It develops by creating strong institutions capable of generating knowledge, solving local problems and training successive generations.

Every cedi spent on education should produce the greatest possible public benefit.

Where Ghana can train a student effectively at home, public funds should strengthen the student and the Ghanaian institution.

Where specialised knowledge is unavailable locally, the country should confidently sponsor deserving citizens abroad, but with a clear plan for their return, placement and contribution.

Foreign scholarships must remain a bridge to expertise Ghana does not yet possess, not an expensive substitute for confidence and investment in our own universities.

The reform being advocated is therefore not against scholarship beneficiaries, international universities or global academic cooperation.

It is a call for national discipline, educational sovereignty and fairness.

Ghana must invest first in what it has, build what it lacks and fund overseas study only where the national interest genuinely requires it.

That is how scholarship policy can move beyond individual advancement and become a deliberate engine of national transformation.

By DIVINE AKOTIA

About the Author is the West African Regional Director for Community Service and Development, International Human Rights Protection Service (IHRPS)