Abstract
As the average Ghanaian lives on less than 2 dollars a day, the introduction of cost sharing in higher institutions in Ghana is putting a lot of financial burden on low income families. Although the Ghanaian Government has introduced the Student Loan Scheme to help students financially, it has not eased the financial burden on some parents and students entirely. This study presents the challenges some university students and their parents are facing in financing higher education at the University of Ghana.
A total number of 117 students participated in the research. They included 65 males and 52 females. All the participants were first year students at the University of Ghana. A number of challenges were presented by some of the research participants. In this study, self-completion questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were the methods used in data collection. The data used in the analysis was collected on the premises of the University of Ghana. For the quantitative part of the research, Microsoft Excel was the computer program used for the portrayal of data. Grounded theory was used in the analysis of data for the qualitative part of the study. The study used Globalization Theory as the major theory which basically served as a guide.
Five main research questions were used to achieve the major purpose of the study. From the data analysis, interpretation and the whole discussion of major themes and research findings, the study shows that majority of the students at the University of Ghana had at least a parent within the high or middle income group. In addition, these university students depended on either a single source or multiple sources for funds. The study also revealed that the main source that majority of the students at the university depended on for funds was parents.
The few students whose parents fall within the low income group were faced with some challenges when it comes to financing their education. In order to raise money to help finance a child’s university education, some parents have to work most of the time. From the analysis it was made known that, some students and their parents have to sell their personal items, belongings or property just to get some extra funds. The study also shows that some junior siblings sometimes have to sacrifice their own needs, in order for the needs of their adult siblings at the university to be met first in families that have financial difficulties.
In relation to gender and the difficulty in financing university education, most of the participants do not see male students having it easier in financing their education than females. In addition majority of the respondents do not agree that male students have it easier finding guarantors to guarantee for their student loan than female students. It was pointed out that the issue of trust in paying back the student loan is portrayed to be more important than gender when one is looking for a guarantor. Finally, majority of the male and female respondents does not see their gender influencing their parents to give them preferential treatment when it comes to financing their university education.