Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has called for diversified and sustainable funding for Ghana’s universities as public financing struggles to meet rising demands.

She said universities needed stronger partnerships with industry, development partners, alumni, philanthropists and the private sector to improve their financial resilience and sustain their core functions.

The Vice President made the call in a speech read on her behalf at the maiden Ghana Higher Education Summit hosted by the University of Ghana.

The summit was held on the theme: “Universities at the Crossroads: Charting Sustainable Funding Pathways for Inclusive Higher Education.”

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said universities were facing increasing enrolments, growing demands for research and innovation, rapid technological change and rising operational costs amid constrained public resources.

“This demands that we retain traditional funding models and embrace bold, innovative and collaborative approaches to financing higher education,” she said.

The Vice President said universities remained central to national development through the human capital, research, innovation and leadership they provided to drive economic transformation.

She, however, said universities could fulfil that role only when adequately resourced, effectively governed and empowered to innovate.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the Government had introduced measures to improve access to and the quality of tertiary education, including the no-fees-stress initiative to ease the financial burden on first-year tertiary students.

She said other measures included expanded student loan support, free tertiary education for eligible students with disabilities, increased investment in emerging public universities and reforms to improve transparency in the National Scholarship Scheme.

The Government had also strengthened technical and vocational education and supported infrastructure development, including a 10,000-bed hostel project for the University of Ghana, she said.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the Government had also launched the Ghana National Research Fund with initial seed funding of $100 million to support competitive research grants and doctoral and postdoctoral training.

“These initiatives reflect the government’s vision of building an inclusive, research-driven, resilient and globally competitive higher education system,” she said.

The Vice President said the long-term sustainability of universities would depend on diversified funding models that strengthened institutional resilience without compromising academic freedom, quality, equity and access.

Emeritus Professor Ernest Aryeetey, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said continued dependence of universities on Government funding was unsustainable and could constrain their ability to expand access, improve infrastructure, support students and undertake research.

He proposed a funding model combining Government grants, performance-based funding, philanthropy, crowdfunding, community support, institutional revenue generation and partnerships with industry.

Prof. Aryeetey said universities could generate additional income through research commercialisation, consulting, technology transfer, intellectual property, short courses, online programmes and industry-based training.

Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, said the summit sought to examine sustainable and equitable ways of financing higher education while protecting academic quality and expanding access to opportunities.

“The discussions and recommendations emerging from the Summit should feed into public policy, institutional strategies and partnerships capable of strengthening higher education over the long term,” she said.