At least 13 students at Ghana's public universities have died from non-natural causes since 2024, according media reports analysed by JoyNews Research.

Road accidents, suicides and a handful of attacks account for most of them, and a run of recent deaths has left students, parents and university authorities worried about safety on the country's campuses. The count covers deaths from external causes and leaves out those blamed on illness.

The deaths span Ghana's biggest institutions: the University of Ghana, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Coast and the University of Education, Winneba. The numbers climbed in 2024, when six students died, the worst year on record. Four died in 2025, and three have died in the first half of 2026.

Recorded deaths since 2024

Source: review of Ghanaian media reports. Not an official or exhaustive count. Some deaths occurred just off campus or in transit. Causes shown as reported; several remain under investigation.

KNUST has lost the most. Between late 2024 and early 2025 it recorded four student deaths in roughly five months. They ranged from road crashes, some caught on CCTV and shared widely online, to the killing of Joana Deladem Yabani, a final-year student whose body was found near a campus building in February 2025.

Her boyfriend, also a KNUST student, was arrested and charged with murder. He has been remanded several times while prosecutors wait for advice from the Attorney-General's office. The case drew national anger and prompted women's rights groups to demand justice.

Most of the deaths were road and traffic accidents, several on or near campus roads. Suicides come next. Reports have tied a number of them to relationship breakups and the strain of academic and mental-health pressures. In April 2025, a first-year UEW student hanged himself in his hall of residence, one of several suicides that have pushed students to demand better counselling. The rest include drownings and a fatal fall.

According to a JoyNews Research review, universities have generally responded by launching investigations, ordering post-mortems and promising tighter security. When suspected armed robbers attacked a University of Energy and Natural Resources student returning from a field trip in 2024, the university said police had arrested a suspect and that survivors were being offered counselling.

The deaths have fed a wider argument about whether Ghana's universities do enough to support student mental health, with student leaders calling for better security, brighter campus lighting and easier access to counselling. The real number is probably higher. Checks show there are no publicly available database that keeps official record of university student deaths, so this count rests only on cases that made the news.

The most recent case has drawn the heaviest public attention. Innocentia Avinu, a 20-year-old second-year student at the University of Cape Coast, was last seen leaving her hostel on June 11 to meet someone off campus. Her body washed ashore at Hutchland Beach near Cape Coast the next day. Police said an initial examination found no visible injuries and dismissed online claims that body parts had been removed, urging the public to stop spreading unverified information while a post-mortem is carried out.

On June 15, police said they had arrested a 39-year-old man who, according to preliminary investigations, picked the student up from her hostel and drove her to the beach where she was last seen alive. Officers said the investigation was continuing.

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has ordered a full, transparent investigation and directed UCC to cooperate fully with the police. The university has said it is working with investigators and has assured students and staff of their safety as it reviews security around the campus and its hostels.