Higher Education Finance Policy

Financing higher education remains one of the most controversial yet unresolved policy challenges in Africa. With the threat of "massification" and financial austerity, higher education in Africa has suffered myriad challenges - deteriorating academic infrastructure, poor faculty recruitment and retention, poor research management capacities, and inadequate instructional facilities, inter alia. Cognizant of these quagmires, and realizing the importance of higher education to national development, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Act 581 was passed in 2000 to provide supplementary financial resources to education at all levels. With a context of legislative intent and documentary evidence of effectiveness, this book examines the perceptions of key stakeholders as to the accomplishments, thus far, of the GETFund in addressing some principal objectives and challenges. Through the lens of stakeholders' perception, recommendations are offered for potential enhancements of the GETFund and for its adaptation in other national circumstances. The first two chapters of the book provide a historical overview - the creation and the challenges of higher education in Africa and Ghana in particular. The remaining chapters underscore the research process in a culturally diverse environment to investigate the major achievements, impacts and contributions of the GETFund since its inception. The book is addressed to university administrators, educators, policy makers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, philanthropists and students interested in higher education finance policy, particularly in developing countries.