Prince Komla Bansah, President of the UK-based Ghanaian PhD students’ cohort, has criticised what he describes as the government’s lack of urgency in resolving prolonged delays in the payment of school fees and stipends for Ghanaian doctoral students in the United Kingdom.
Speaking to JoyNews over the weekend, Mr Bansah said the situation has reached a critical point, with students facing severe hardship as a result of the non-payment.
“Our objective is not to cause any embarrassment to the country that we come from, but there is no seriousness being taken in terms of resolving the matter, and students continue to be outside in the cold because they do not have accommodation due to the non-payment of stipend which has taken so many years,” he said.
“I am not sure that there is going to be any reversal in the ultimate decision that they have taken,” he added.
He noted that many students have been waiting for more than a year to receive financial support, a delay that has reportedly led to evictions from hostels and exclusion from essential academic activities.
Some students, he said, have been forced to rely on food banks to meet basic needs.
According to Mr Bansah, the affected students have repeatedly petitioned the Scholarship Secretariat for intervention, but little progress has been made, leaving many struggling to continue their academic work in the UK.
Read also: Ghanaian PhD students petition UK prime minister over unpaid scholarships and deportation fears
The cohort is urging the relevant authorities to act swiftly to prevent further disruption to their studies and welfare.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sabah Zita Benson, has appealed to the students to remain patient.
“They should be patient. I am sure that by the end of this quarter, we should have some of these things resolved. I have been following up with the Scholarship Secretariat personally, and when some money will be released for us to pay these debts,” she said.
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