A policy analysis of the financing of tertiary education institutions in Ghana: An assessment of the objectives and the impact of the Ghana Education Trust Fund

Higher education development worldwide at the turn of the century has witnessed a multitude of challenges such as accessibility, affordability, financial austerity, faculty recruitment and retention, and the lack of improvement of physical facilities. Whereas these challenges pose a serious threat to effective higher education systems, two major challenges of massification and financial stringency remain a peril at the pinnacle of education development. Whilst different cost sharing mechanisms have been advanced to address these problems in most advanced countries, the situation is quite different in sub-Saharan African countries, where the introduction of cost sharing has generated serious agitations from students. In Ghana where the higher education system is constitutionally financed by the state, the introduction of cost sharing policies have not only been politicized and attacked, but also created severe inequalities making higher education the preserve of the socially privileged. Cognizant of these quagmires, and realizing the importance of higher education to national development, Parliament passed a bill that established the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund Act 581) in 2000, which levies a 2.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services to supplement government budgetary allocations to education. The purpose is to provide financial resources to support all educational institutions and offer financial assistance to genuinely needy and academically talented students. Guided by the interpretive theory of social constructivism, this study used qualitative document analysis and interview techniques to investigate the perceptions of university administrators, board of trustees, government officials, and student leadership about the fulfillment of the objectives of the Act. Twenty-five participants representing three major universities, two polytechnics and agencies of the Ministry of Education were selected for this study. The first phase of the study analyzed existing government and policy documents on education, particularly those on the GETFund. The second phase of open-ended interviews investigated the perceptions of participants of the study. The findings of the study indicated a tremendous contribution of the GETFund towards higher education development in Ghana in the areas of academic and residential infrastructural development, provision of scholarships and financial assistance to needy students, contributions to faculty research and development and the establishment of a student loans scheme.