More than 100 Ghanaian doctoral students studying at universities across the United Kingdom have petitioned the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, appealing for urgent intervention as unpaid government scholarships expose them to deportation, eviction and severe financial distress.

In the petition to the prime minister, the students urge the British government to help press Ghanaian authorities to clear a mounting backlog of tuition fees and living allowances, which they say now runs into millions of pounds.

The prolonged non-payment has triggered a chain reaction, with some universities withdrawing student registrations and the Home Office subsequently deporting affected students.

Prince Komla Bansah, president of the students’ group, said others have been forced out of accommodation or pushed into debt to survive. He noted that while a small number attempt part-time work, the intensity of PhD programmes makes this unsustainable for most, leaving many reliant on loans from family members in Ghana.

According to the petition, the funding crisis has reached a critical point, with some students facing court action over unpaid rent and others depending on food banks to meet basic needs.

The affected students are enrolled at institutions across Britain, including University College London, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and the universities of Nottingham, Bradford, Warwick, Lincoln and Liverpool.

Ghanaian officials say the crisis stems from inherited liabilities. After President John Mahama’s administration took office in January, 2025, it identified scholarship-related debts to about 110 UK institutions, estimated at £32 million.

The registrar of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, Alex Kwaku Asafo-Agyei, said an audit of scholarships awarded under the previous government was under way, alongside a suspension of new UK awards.

Asafo-Agyei said he had visited the UK to negotiate instalment payment plans with some universities, although several institutions later withdrew from those arrangements.

While insisting that Ghana had made “significant payments” and was working towards an amicable resolution, he declined to state how much of the debt had been settled.

Students say the impact on their academic lives has been severe. About 30 PhD candidates report that their tuition fees have not been paid since 2024, leaving some unable to graduate, submit work or access university facilities.

Others have missed maintenance payments for more than three years, while the government has also failed to renew letters of support required for scholarship holders already in the UK.

Bansah said that although the current administration is relatively new, it was aware of the scale of the problem and has yet to resolve it. He questioned why new foreign scholarships continue to be awarded while longstanding arrears affecting UK-based students remain unpaid.