Parliament's Education Committee flags soaring distance learning fees at universities

Ghana's Parliamentary Select Committee on Education has raised fresh concerns about the steep fees charged by universities for distance education programmes, questioning whether the costs are justified or exploitative.

During a working visit to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) headquarters in Accra, committee members led by Chairman Peter Nortsu-Kotoe highlighted the disparity between distance learning and regular programme fees. Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah noted that unlike other countries where distance education is cheaper, Ghanaian universities charge substantially more—a trend he argued was becoming an incentive for institutions to profit at the expense of students. "This issue of disparity between the distance programmes and the regular programmes is way expensive, while in other jurisdictions, it is the other way round," he observed.

Committee members also flagged concerns about programme quality and relevance. Ranking Member Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum warned that some distance learning courses do not guarantee employment for graduates, and urged GTEC to work with development partners on university programme rankings to help the public make informed choices. "Do the ranking so that people don't continue to live on their past glory," he said.

GTEC Director-General Professor Ahmed Jinapor explained that distance and weekend programmes operate as private arrangements outside the commission's regulatory scope. "GTEC does not regulate the fees because those fees are not regulated by Parliament," he said, clarifying that GTEC only intervenes to ensure quality standards. However, he acknowledged the problem of universities copying international programmes without adapting them to Ghana's context, stating: "There is a penchant for institutions to just cut and paste programmes from outside Ghana and replicate them here, and we are fighting it."