High Commissioner makes an urgent appeal to parents

Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Professor Kwaku Danso Boafo, has made an urgent appeal to parents whose wards are self-sponsored students in the United Kingdom to take radical steps to provide them with the basic logistics and funds to alleviate them from the unnecessary and severe financial predicament they currently face.

He asked them to have the welfare and the future of their wards at heart and provide them with logistics that could prepare them for life in the future. The Ghanaian Envoy gave the warning at a meeting with a cross-section of Ghanaian students pursuing various forms of education in the UK.

The meeting was called to discuss possible solutions to the issues affecting some of the students that had come to the attention of the mission.

Currently there are 63 students on various Ghana government scholarship programmes but there are thousands more who are self sponsored. It is estimated that there are about 30 of them on Commonwealth scholarship as 10 of this scholarship is awarded every year.

At the meeting were sponsored and self-sponsored students to share their views and also lay bear their issues to the High Commissioner and brainstorm for possible solutions.

All present including those on scholarships talked extensively about the agonies they face in their education in the UK.

It was revealed that a number of Ghanaian students pursuing various forms of education in the United Kingdom have been identified as facing severe financial hardship as a result of inadequate funding.

Investigations have also confirmed that some of them have had their education terminated due to their inability to pay their tuition fees while a few are surviving at the mercy of philanthropic individuals and charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army Church.

Other issues that came to the attention of Professor Danso Boafo were that some of the students studying in a university in Bolton have been deported for breaching university and immigration rules, while some also have faced eviction by their landlords. The identities of the individual students affected for obvious reasons were not disclosed.

Some students whose visas have expired cannot renew them because they are no longer recognized by the universities and therefore cannot be provided with documents for the renewal processes.

Mr. Kwasi Bampo a PhD student in Finance Development at the Manchester University and who is being sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat told the High Commissioner that “there have been instances where delay in the release of the funds has affected my research and other academic activities.” Students on the GETFund scholarship complained about the severe delays in receiving their remittances and said the situation has placed untold hardships on them. Others, mostly the self-sponsored, noted that they had to receive remittances from relatives in Ghana to enable them meet their financial obligations. It was also revealed at the meeting that the situation has been compounded due to the fact that, in a bid to meet their financial targets to qualify for adequate matching funds from the government to run their institutions, universities from the UK organise fairs in the developing countries, and for that matter, Ghana to entice prospective students to the UK without providing any guidance and funding, hence the unbearable plight faced by the Ghanaian students.

Ghanaian parents in their zeal to seek quality education for their ward/children fail to investigate assertions made by these universities. Professor Danso Boafo viewed the situation as critical and which requires very urgent attention. He also expressed disappointment at the situation saying “it is avoidable.”

He said there is the urgent need for prompt action to help address the issues and promised the support of his office and for that matter the government of Ghana to the affected students.

He advised parents to take a second look at the “prestige” associated with their wards being educated in the UK which ended up putting pressure and unnecessary anxiety on them due to the inappropriate funding and support.