Government scholarships face reform, but in whose interest?

The government is currently pushing the Ghana Scholarships Authority Bill through Parliament.

It’s a major legislative effort to reform how public scholarships are awarded and managed.

For years, critics—myself included—have called for a fundamental rethink of Ghana’s foreign scholarship schemes.

Indeed, in a November 2024 article in the Daily Graphic titled “Ghana’s questionable foreign scholarship schemes:

Proposal for reforms”, I laid out the case against a broken system: one that sends public money overseas, often with little justification, while starving local research institutions. 

Recent media reports have also highlighted the threat of termination and deportation facing Ghanaian scholarship holders at the University of Memphis, due to a $3.6 million debt owed by the government.

The proposed reforms have thus generated interest and cautious optimism, particularly among those who have long questioned the current system’s inefficiencies.

Yet optimism, as Ghanaians know too well, is not easily sustained.

Even as the scholarship bill made headlines, the government announced it had dropped legal proceedings against high-profile individuals accused of misusing funds meant for bailing out struggling banks.

Prosecutors explained that about 60 per cent of the money had been recovered.

The above coincidence raises an important question: if the government saves money through these reforms, where will those savings go?

Will they benefit the public good, or vanish into the shadows of political discretion? 

Reform means little if it is not tied to meaningful reinvestment.

Any funds recovered or saved from restructuring our scholarship programmes must be redirected to Ghana’s universities and research institutions, which are the fulcrums of our development.

They train our human capital and generate new ideas and technologies. And yet, they have long been underfunded and overlooked.

Universities as national security zones

If the government is still unsure whether establishing a national research fund is essential, it must begin to see universities not merely as centres of learning, but as national security zones that are critical to our sovereignty and development.

Globally, powerful nations guard their university-based research activities closely. A striking example is the 2020 arrest of Charles M. Lieber by the U.S. government.

Lieber, the preeminent Harvard chemist and nanoscience expert, was later convicted and briefly jailed for failing to disclose research affiliations and funding received from China.

The case raised alarms about academic espionage—where nations covertly extract valuable research and intellectual property from rivals—and underscored how taxpayer-funded science can carry serious geopolitical consequences.

Such concerns explain why some countries carefully screen international students to prevent the transfer of sensitive technologies to foreign governments.

Lieber’s subsequent move to a Chinese university this year further reminds us that talent itself is a target in global knowledge competition.

In this light, Ghana must ask hard questions: Do we believe our universities are developing ideas worth protecting? Do our embassies even screen foreign students seeking to study in Ghana?

If not, is it because we assume there is nothing to steal? If that’s the case, the problem likely isn’t a lack of talent, but a lack of funding—and of the resources that turn potential into progress.

Inadequate funding means Ghanaian scientists often rely on ineffective laboratory reagents and outdated equipment, and publish promising ideas prematurely in low-tier journals.

These early-stage ideas can then be picked up by well-funded foreign scientists, who may refine them into successful products—claiming full credit for themselves and their countries.

Without meaningful investment, Ghana risks losing control over its most valuable ideas and the economic gains that come with them.

For, as the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune. 

Reforms, not austerity  

While the bill may reduce waste, it must not become a mere cost-cutting exercise.

Among the proposed changes, there is speculation that the government may stop sending students abroad when local universities offer sufficient expertise. 

This would be a welcome shift. But unless the savings are deliberately reinvested into strengthening Ghana’s universities, we risk creating a quiet form of austerity—one that undermines our intellectual future under the guise of reform.

Without targeted funding, our universities may never fully evolve into the globally competitive knowledge powerhouses we envision.

Our universities must also advocate for themselves.

They teach negotiation and leadership; now they must apply those very skills to make a compelling case to the government: fund us, or we fall behind. 

Moment of national choice

Finally, while some developed countries have been slashing university and research funding in recent times, this may only be a symptom of post-superpower fatigue, and a reminder that all empires rise and fall.

Ghana cannot follow that path, as we have not yet reached our peak.

We are still at the starting line.

Thus, holding back on research and innovation funding now is not just shortsighted; it is dangerous. 

It would weaken our knowledge base, drive our brightest minds abroad and further delay our development.

This is a national security issue, and we must begin to treat it as such.    

The writer is a scientist, essayist and commentator on education and innovation policy.

University of Cape Coast. 
E-mail: iagorsor@ucc.edu.gh