Sir Sam Jonah has warned that universities that continue to depend on government funding risk becoming obsolete, declaring that institutions waiting for state subvention are “planning” their own collapse.

Delivering a keynote address at the installation of the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor Denis Aheto, on Saturday, August 1, Sir Sam said the era of relying on public funds to sustain higher education was over.

“The public purse that built this University can no longer sustain it, and no government — of any party — will change that arithmetic soon,” he said.

“A university that waits for subvention is a university planning its own funeral, with a very fine brochure.”

Speaking on the theme “We Hold the Pen: The University in the Age of Answers,” Sir Sam argued that universities must reinvent themselves into institutions that create value, generate revenue and produce graduates with practical skills.

He said universities should no longer see themselves as beggars seeking state support but as centres capable of funding their own future.

“But notice: the university I have described is not a beggar,” he said.

“A university whose students run real fish farms, real energy installations, real enterprises, is a university with revenue, patents, industry partners at the gate, and grateful alumni. The doer university funds itself.”

Sir Sam pointed to Professor Aheto’s own record as proof that the model was achievable.

“From one centre, Professor Aheto has mobilised over thirty million United States dollars into this University, funded more than four hundred scholarships, trained over fifty PhDs, and grown a national centre into an Africa Centre of Excellence.”

“Imagine a whole university built on that principle.”

He pledged to support the effort personally.

“I pledge to lead from the front — and I will be knocking, without shame, on the doors of everyone in this hall. Consider yourselves warned.”

Beyond financing, Sir Sam urged universities to rethink their purpose in an age where artificial intelligence can provide instant answers.

“For the first time in human history, the cleverest entity in the room may not be a person,” he said.

“If our answer is: ‘to transmit knowledge’ — then we are finished, because a machine now does that better, faster and cheaper than we ever will.”

Instead, he argued, universities should focus on producing graduates who can solve real-world problems.

“There are no useless degrees. There are only degrees that have been separated from usefulness — and it is our job to reunite them.”

He proposed that UCC establish Africa’s first degree-awarding faculty dedicated to vocational education, combining academic rigour with hands-on competence. He also called for AI-driven student innovation clubs, stronger industry partnerships, diaspora mentorship and project-based learning.

Charging Professor Aheto to lead bold reforms, Sir Sam said, “I did not come to Cape Coast to install a caretaker. Caretakers polish inherited furniture. I came to install a founder.”

He concluded by urging the university to seize the moment created by artificial intelligence rather than fear it.

“The old model of the university is passing. A new one is waiting to be built. Someone will build it. Let it be built here, by us.”