THE ECONOMICS OF TERTIARY EDUCATION: A DECADE OF EXPERIMENTING WITH TERTIARY REFORMS AND COST SHARING THERAPIES IN GHANA

Abstract

As at June 2005, several qualified candidates who sought tertiary education in Ghana could not enroll due to financial constraints. Access, relevance, affordability, quality, equity and gender issues are now receiving considerable national attention. Students and managements have responded to the diminishing funds in different ways. We examine educational policy changes between 1994-2004 in the tertiary sector in Ghana particularly because of the turbulence of reforms in Ghana. Funding difficulties and reforms by universities to revamp the tertiary sector in Ghana is addressed. The paper further examines the evolution, rationale of tertiary reforms, the governance structures, mandates, and manner of funding tertiary education and the policy of cost sharing as was perceived. The institutional arrangements to deal with student loans, research funding, Scholarships and infrastructure are also discussed. The paper concludes that there is sufficient goodwill to prevent the decay of HEIs but harsh economic realities have hindered the expected stakeholder commitment from most Ghanaians. Cost recovery may be hurting, but things could be worse if our HEIs are allowed to decay beyond redemption in a globalized economy. We recommend improvement in the economic management of the State to substantially alleviate the economic hardships of students and staff in the universities.