The modern world is influenced to an ever-increasing extent by the application of scientific knowledge. There is therefore a correspondly growing need for academically trained techno’og’sts, scientists, administrators, teachers, politicians and so on. If we are to meet this growing need for educated leaders in the long-run, we must attempt to increase the percentage of the population competing University study. Modern society has a duty to ensure, by means of a vigorous educational policy which pays no attention to old inhibitions, that every educated member of the community receives as much assistance as possible, and that at the different stages of his education, he always finds a way open to him by which he can progress to more demanding forms of education. Any defeatist reference to the limits of a nation’s reservoir of talent could be justified only if one had really exhausted every administrative, pedagogical and methodological opportunity consistently to call for and encourage the development of appropriate arrangements and facilities.

In Ghana today there is every indication that we shall continue to depend on our Universities to supply us with the much needed high-level manpower for our economic development.

Yet, the cost of running the Universities is such that it is eating very substantially into our resources. The mounting cost of University education led to the introduction of the University Loans Scheme. Our young entrants to University have not been happy about the Loans Scheme and have often called on Governments to abolish it. 

As a gesture to the students of a possible review of the Loans Scheme, the Government has called on the students to make sacrifices by way of possible cuts and economies in the running of Universities. The students have responded to this call by questioning a whole range of facilities, not only affect-ing their up-keep but also that of University lecturers.

Indeed, it costs not less than C2,500 to keep a student for one year in our Universities. No amount of saving will prune this amount down drastically. Perhaps, it will be better to review the whole idea of a student who necessarily has to be “in residence.”

It is residential facilities which take much of the tax-payers’ money. However, one notes that the students are playing down some real facts of University costs by not asking the Government to review this important area of expenditure. Once students begin to live in their own homes, much of the expenses will be drastically reduced.

The present halls could easily be turned into hostels without much difficulty. We believe that it is not the cost of external examiners, nor the cost of running University Primary Schools which account for the huge expenditure on University education in Ghana. Therefore the real costs of University expenditure are still to be properly examined!